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Barack Obama: Biracial Icon To "Zebras" And "Oreos" Everywhere?
New York, 8:25 PM
Sat Nov 28
24 posts in the last 24 hours
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Barack Obama: Biracial Icon To "Zebras" And "Oreos" Everywhere? |
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11/07/08
so sorry I didn't get to read it until now
11/06/08
11/07/08
I am proud of his accomplishment as a black man in a white man's world, but it doesn't have to denigrate his nuanced, mixed heritage.
11/06/08
I'm like a sponge, i soak up all this stuff about different cultures, dances, food, music, art etc...I wish it would be more prevalent and common instead of a special event type thing.
11/06/08
11/07/08
Like the awesome Julian Bond always said as he ran the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People..."White is a color, too."
It's all about how you appreciate yourself and others, and you seem like you're doing fine.
11/06/08
I am a proudly white-bred bi-racial person, and I identify with Barack Obama, what can I say?
11/06/08
I tell you what - no one's going to get closer to the realities of race in this country by screaming and shouting down other experiences simply because they don't happen to be your own.
11/06/08
As a biracial person. Geez.
11/07/08
11/07/08
11/06/08
I am not limiting your pride in being black nor your pride in your african-american president. Please do not diminish my right to speak on MY experience, do not tell me to STFU, simply because I don't look black and can never be 100% black. My momma is 100% black she would probably smack the anger of you if she could.
11/06/08
That, does not sound nice at all. I reject your stereotype of a "100%" black person, and suggest that a 100% black person may well simply disagree with you, even strongly, but need not resort to violence? Even a black but not "officially 100%" black person, like our American President Barack Obama, believes in being willing to talk with even those called 'enemies.' He isn't going all violent on folks, that was what the 100% white President Bush has done over the past terms and that is a big reason why people rejected the GOP a few days ago.
Don't go all Sarah Palin on me.
Darn, people love to irritate black folk, but once you turn it back on them, they get all cranky.
11/06/08
11/06/08
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11/06/08
ky, stf, y r nt blck, w gt t. Fr th rcrd, y r ls nt blck whn grp f rcst wht mn r chsng y dwn th strt t clbrt strm thrmnd's brthdy, d nt sk m f knw gd hr sln, nd dn't tw wks frm nw pst sm stff frm tht "blck pnt f vw" bcs yr thr nn-blck Jzbl cllgs fr sm rsn thnk y'd b gd prsn t wrt t. Rmmbr y r nt blck, s gn, stf.
11/06/08
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11/06/08
I am white British/Irish (and you don't get much pastier and paler then that), but because I wear hijab, some people cannot believe I'm white, not just white people but people of colour too. My husband is Arab, but light skinned, so most people think he's Greek or Italian.
I'm currently pregnant with our child, who will be biracial and I wonder what her experience will be?
11/06/08
11/06/08
I used to be gung ho about having people not identify me as mixed, because I felt like they were usually doing it to take something away from me, to compliment me for doing something they wouldn't expect from a black person, and then to try to contextualize that by pointing out that i was some fraction whute, and not "really" black, so that their racism could remain in tact. And I spent so long insisting that I was black and it didn't matter who in my family wasn't that it was college before I had to admit to myself that my only living grandparent, the only one I'd ever met, was a white woman, and it meant something about my relationship to history, and my sense of family.
On a smaller note, I always thought Oreo had nothing to do with a person's being mixed, and was about behavior "black on the outside, white on the inside." or at least, that's how the lovely junior high girls who called me that explained it to me.
11/06/08
Maybe he'll call African-Americans, "Them" and "Those people"
Until then, please don't try to ruin the buzz for us black people.
Black people like Michelle Obama.
Like that 106 year old Black woman who voted for Barack Obama, that Obama mentioned in his speech, the African-American woman that Barack Obama was so happy about because he knew she was so happy that she could live to vote for and see a black man as President.
Because see, he knew why she was happy.
Because he is black.
African-American
Black African-American
Like his wife. And he is kids.
Black like that.
Okay, I officially can no longer hear or see people who claim that Barack Obama is not black, not really black.
I submit that Barack Obama feels quite the same way.
Because he is Black. African. African-American. of African descent. An African in America.
Black like Malcolm X. Look at his speech in Sumter, South Carolina.
Hoodwinked. Okey Doke.
Cannot hear you. He can't believe the Okey Doke. Can however, be your President.
Black President.
11/06/08
11/06/08
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11/06/08
Our previous president was what some call "cholo", he came from a poor family and shone shoes when he was a kid so he could go to school. He had brown skin, was short and had Andean features. It was a big deal for a while -and then people sort of forgot, and focused on the real issues. It was a big deal to see him as president, so I think we can somewhat relate.
Racism is a big problem in Peru and other parts of South America, even though most of us are what is being discussed here as "mixed": European and native (Andean and Jungle) as well as African and Asian. Its almost impossible for anyone to say they are "white".
Whenever this comes up, I always remember a kid in school (in the States) who called me "fake Peruvian girl" because of how I look and said he was more Peruvian than me because of his Inca nose. He didn't know any spanish though.
11/06/08
11/06/08
BROTHERS
Hmm, who was he talking about?
Hmm, who was he calling "Brothers?"
Whose brothers? Seems like he was speaking to a black man, discussing black men, and he was calling them brothers.
Brothers, means Sisters.
And that means Black People.
African-American people.
BLACK BLACK BLACK BLACK
11/06/08
11/06/08
They cannot accept seeing and interacting with black people around them, and link that man to those people. They live each day having 'black friends' that they can accept because those friends aren't like 'typical black people.'
In their minds, their black friends and other select black people are not "typical black people" because they are intelligent, well-educated, because they have professional jobs, because they speak "proper english," because they aren't criminals, because they own houses in the suburbs, because they are well-traveled, because don't dress like rappers, because they grew up with two parents or are two parents with children --- because they don't fit any or all of the stereotypes, perceptions they have of 'typical black people.'
They make exceptions like that to prevent reality from weakening their racism against black people.
A lot of people around the world watched the reaction of black people in the U.S., and were shaken at the emotion. They thought, "Hey wait! Why are THEY so happy?" They watched African-Americans they 'admire' from Colin Powell, to Jesse Jackson, Juan Williams on Fox News, Condoleeza Rice, Donna Brazile, Oprah Winfrey, along with regular a bunch of "typical black people" in the streets of the most urban communities, all break down into tears with emotion that showed a unity of mind and spirit, of heart and soul, that they absolutely never thought existed, don't really feel comfortable with existing.
They watched black people around the world, reflect that same emotion, those same tears, that same emotion -- even Black Iraqis were quoted as express the joy that a black man is now U.S. President and what that means for black people.
Remember those early stories saying that Barack Obama would never get the support from African-Americans that the Clintons had because he wasn't 'one of them'? Bullshit, most of us knew then, and wondered who was planting those stories, and BULLSHIT the world knows now because they saw the masses of African-Americans who rushed to register to vote for the first-time in their lives, who braved lines hours long to vote, and who broke down with emotionalism that said one thing -- he is one of us.
And he knows he it too. So does Michelle, and so do his two daughters.
This kind of "he isn't really black like them" backlash was inevitable, and Barack Obama has had his life to deal with these kinds of mentalities.
His own beloved Grandmother loved him dearly, but was afraid of "black men." Notice how Obama told that story, one of the dearest and closet people in his life couldn't quite accept him for what he knew he was -- a black man. He loved her anyway, and didn't let that sway his identity at all.
His whole life was navigating that kind of racist attitude, and that skill came in VERY useful to him becoming President.
So folks, if his own Grandmother who helped raise him couldn't make him think that way, why are you all so desperate to believe that he shares your view now?
So sad....too bad...
AFRICAN-AMERICAN PRESIDENT
BLACK FIRST FAMILY
Notice the lovely African-American wife and African-American daughters.
They are black - like me.
Like us.
People of African Descent.
Like that black person passing you right now.
See them smiling?
Know why?
11/06/08