President Obama Declares Himself "African-American"

[clb09]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/02/politics/main6357568.shtml?tag=strip#comments

He may be the world's foremost mixed-race leader, but when it came to the official government head count, President Barack Obama gave only one answer to the question about his ethnic background: African-American.

 

[noxagol]

So what.

 

[almantimes2]

My ethnic background is human

 

[Pericles]

I'm sure he is at least half right.

 

[Lovecraftian4Paul]

Not an Indonesian-American?

 

[messana]

So what.

+1

 

[nate895]

At least he didn't declare that he is "Il Duce" on the census form.

My ethnic background is human

QFT

 

[Anti Federalist]

Let me open a can of worms here.

What are the societal/racial/sexual/cultural reasons that, I'd say roughly and off the top of my head, 90 times out of a 100 a mixed race couple is black man/white woman?

 

[Erazmus]

My ethnic background is human

+1

 

[silus]

This opens up a bigger question, and honestly I was sad from the beginning Obama didnt take a stand on this, but I guess thats been his pattern. But our society for some reason, whether black or white, cannot comprehend or accept a person being of two races. Black people call Obama black, white people call Obama black, even Obama calls himself black. What does that say about our society?? It just seems so odd that people are willing to ignore absolute, undeniable FACT. He is as much white as he is black. I personally try to refer to him as white as often as I can, just to stir up the false perception. Its a total sham and it totally disrespects his mother. What a slap in the face to her. And its not just him thats guilty, its all of us that perpetuate an obvious lie. And it sucks for all the bi-racial kids out there...

 

[Skeptic569]

yeah man, everyone is technically mixed. 99% of white americans are technically part middle eastern. should 99% of white americans call themselves part middle eastern on the census?

 

[Fox McCloud]

I don't get the obsession of some Black individuals on insisting on calling themselves African Americans. I mean, if they want to do that, fine, but it really doesn't make much sense to me; they're really about the only cultural group that I know of (I could be dead wrong here though, I admit) that wants to do this. I don't hear of many German, Irish, British, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, of Jewish Americans hearkening back to their roots in this manner. They may say "I'm of Japanese descent" or "my ancestors/forefathers came from 'country X'.", but not "I'm Japanese-American!", "I'm German American!", and the likes.

I'm really not sure why this is, though I think it would be interesting to find out why.


I say to heck with national-origin labels; we're all just plain Americans.

 

[james1906]

yawn

 

[Michael Landon]

I don't get the obsession of some Black individuals on insisting on calling themselves African Americans. I mean, if they want to do that, fine, but it really doesn't make much sense to me; they're really about the only cultural group that I know of (I could be dead wrong here though, I admit) that wants to do this. I don't hear of many German, Irish, British, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, of Jewish Americans hearkening back to their roots in this manner. They may say "I'm of Japanese descent" or "my ancestors/forefathers came from 'country X'.", but not "I'm Japanese-American!", "I'm German American!", and the likes.

I'm really not sure why this is, though I think it would be interesting to find out why.


I say to heck with national-origin labels; we're all just plain Americans.

That's funny, because I constantly refer to myself as Prussian-American. People look at me weird but I'm proud of my heritage so I tell it like it is, I'm Prussian-American.

- ML

 

[noxagol]

I say to heck with national-origin labels; we're all just plain Americans.

To hell with nation labels, we're all just people.

 

[Fox McCloud]

To hell with nation labels, we're all just people.

of course; at the end of the day even national labels are arbitrary (as are borders)--it's just that this latter point is harder to swallow for a lot of people than the former statement.

 

[Anti Federalist]

To hell with nation labels, we're all just people.

Yes, people with vastly, wildly divergent ideas on how to live.

Many of those ideas contrary to liberty.

I do not wish to be around those people.

 

[noxagol]

Yes, people with vastly, wildly divergent ideas on how to live.

Many of those ideas contrary to liberty.

I do not wish to be around those people.

Sooo, don't go around them?

 

[daviddee]

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[daviddee]

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