Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Not This Again


You would think that with the world's economy on the brink of collapse, terrorists rapidly regaining their strength and our plant dying faster than ever, journalists would have more than enough serious topics to discuss.

Yet, when I turned on CNN Tuesday morning, what was the topic that merited a special panel of experts? "Is Barack Obama really black?" The other day the Washington Post ran a column that said that people calling Obama black are really mistaken.

Seriously, WTF?

I thought we'd cleared this up months ago. Look, Obama's daddy was African, his momma was white. They made a little mixed-up baby in 1961. Back then, the "one-drop" rule was still in effect, so if you had some black blood and looked like it, you were black. Period.

Obama recognized this early, bonded with the brothers, and whenever anybody asked him about his race, he told them he was black. Not mixed, not bi-racial, not half-black. Obama is blackity, black, black. Simple, right?

Wrong.

Truth is, some folks don't like how Obama took the whole "black president" mantle and ran with it. Some of these people are mixed race people themselves who never liked the idea of having to choose between their parents, but many of them are just white people who want to steal black people's joy. Happy Negroes just give some folks heartburn.

For the mixed race folks, I understand their pain. After all, if Obama viewed himself differently, he would be first bi-racial president, which would likely give mixed race folks the same sort of feeling that black folks have today. Y'all know what I'm talking about, that whole "I can do anything" vibe that's been going around.

However, while I have sympathy for their plight, I'm perturbed that some of them are trying to force Obama to be bi-racial instead of being just plain black. These same folks have a problem with anyone trying to stuff them into a racial box, but they're doing the same thing to Obama. If Barack wanted to check "other" on the census, that would be his business, but he doesn't, and they should leave it at that. Some folks don't mind choosing one race over another, particularly if they grew up in a time when the world wasn't as accepting of riding the race fence.

Now, the white folks who are making this argument out of spite just tickle me. After all, these same people were the ones willing to call Obama a Muslim because his father was a Muslim even though Obama says he's a Christian and he was raised in a non-religious household. These folks claimed that according to traditional Islamic law, if your father was a Muslim you are automatically a Muslim, no questions asked.

Apparently these folks have never heard of the traditional rules of blackness.

See, before he became a senator or politician, Obama was just another nappy-headed Negro to most white folks. The rules of blackness said that his daddy was black, so he was black, end of story. Add in the fact that he wasn't light enough to pass, and there really was little wiggle room. The fact that the same people who established these draconian rules of limitation on black people back in the day are now trying to change those rules because a black man beat the odds is ridiculously ironic.

Y'all got some nerve.

Thing is, this new flip-flop shouldn't pass the smell test and should be roundly deconstructed and vilified by any intelligent person. And I'm specifically talking about all the intelligent people who make up our media. We should not be having discussions about Obama's blackness. His blackness is like Hillary Clinton's womanhood. Damn the pantsuits and rumors, when Hillary was born, she was a woman, she will always be a woman. And despite his lovely white grandparents and mother, when Obama was born, he was black and he will always be black.

Let this thing go, and explain to me how to survive when civilization collapses.

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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I note the same hypocrisy. What happened to all of that Manchurian candidate stuff?

Obama is black. Period.

nonie3234 said...

From his "60 Minutes" interview, Feb 2007:

KROFT: Yet at some point, you decided that you were black?

OBAMA: Well, I'm not sure I decided it. I think if you look African-American in this society, you're treated as an African-American. And when you're a child in particular that is how you begin to identify yourself. At least that's what I felt comfortable identifying myself as.

More here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/11/60minutes/main2458530.shtml

Admin said...

"See, before he became a senator or politician, Obama was just another nappy-headed Negro to most white folks. "

RIGHT!!!! I've always said it, just another N word to white folks if he was an everyday brotha on the street or the man in the elevator with the little old white lady clutching her purse because she thinks he's just like all the others out to rob her they wouldn't be wanting to associate themselves with the white side of that individual.

The minute he's an upstanding and respected man the world over and now the President-elect THEY want to claim the 50% of him and denounce his blackness. **shakes head** Black folks the world over have quite happily accepted mixed race children in their family as one of their own and seen them as nothing other than black. I can't say this is true for many white families, even Mariah Carey's mother wasn't welcome for marrying a black man and having bi-racial children, so she grew up knowing the only side of the family that loved and accepted her.

When it's good for them they want to get all PC and 'claim' mixed race folks like Obama and Lewis Hamilton when they are suceeding. Flash a mugshot up on the news of a mixed dude who looks black [and we class as black] and they're just another N****!

All-Mi-T [Thought Crime] Rawdawgbuffalo said...

Its really entertainment u know

Admin said...

^^^^^^

HUH??

Big Man said...

Thanks for the comments.

London Diva

I think Terrance is saying that the news and all the media is really just entertainment and shouldn't be taken so seriously.

I can see the point of that, but far too many people make up their minds based on whatever they're told through the idiot box, so that's why I focus on it so much.

Anonymous said...

It's all a part of the conspiracy to 'dumb down America".

Anonymous said...

To Paraphrase Dennis Green:


You are who you say you are.


If the man said he was Cablicasian...Black folk would still claim him...white folk would smirk and placate him when it suits them, but still pigeonhole him as one of the good negroes, a la Tiger Woods.

He said hes Black. That should be enough.


But it never is.


Just like Black Folk claim Tiger against HIS will, Biracial folk of all random colors will try and dispute what the man has CLEARLY said for himself.

and the media continues to play along.


I aint gonna be able to do it.

I got enough on my plate without taking the sloppy seconds of other folks drama.

Anonymous said...

Let me start by complimenting you on your blog, which i find enoyable to read because of your passionate opinions and insight. After I get through all of slamonline.com, i usually like to check commenters and their various blogs.

This is a bit late, but i thought i'd offer my two cents anyway. This whole discussion is moot. He is what he is, biologically. Half black/half white. However, I agree with your point about the way he is looked at by white people. I am of mixed races myself (half white/half arab), which in the mainstream's eye still makes me, um, "colored", or "muslim" as if those were bad or inferior things to be. I do identify with both my cultures/backgrounds equally. With that said, I can definitely understand that Obama "feels" Black because of the way that American society is made up, and i also feel that the Black community has every right to embrace him and his succes.

LISA VAZQUEZ said...

Hey there,

Obama refers to himself as a "mutt" and that is just a self-deprecating term for "biracial".

He called himself African-American while he was on the campaign trail...while he was a member at Trinity...

In his autobiography, he writes about his conflicts with self-identification... he was part of Hawaiian culture NOT black culture...and he was conditioned in a white family...not a Kenyan family.

Black folks want to claim anyone with any percentage of African blood...and that's fine....

Still, people are ENTITLED to identify themselves however they choose to.

If society wants to call him "black" and he wants to refer to himself as a "mutt" then he can do so.

Tiger can refer to himself HOWEVER he wants to...his father was biracial (and looked like he wasn't) and his mom was/still is Asian (and she looks like it).

He is not even 1/2 black then...but he looks like it...so I guess he can define himself HOWEVER he wants to...

It's his choice what he wants to label his ancestry...he doesn't have to ask the Negro Council for permission to define himself....

Neither does Obama...

He's NOT black....he's biracial...he doesn't have to denounce his OWN mother just to sound politically-correct to blacks....




Raving Black Lunatic