Barack Obama is not black

[fitz1980]

Originally Posted by Winged Monkey

Moreover - how the heck do we objectively identify "black" "arab" etc. These races are somewhat artificial themselves as its not as if through-out history Africa had a unified and homogenous population, let alone the peoples of the middle-east! It seems to me that a key component of race in the US is self-identification and culture

Race itself is a pretty artificial construct that's mostly based on superficial traits, culture and self identification. I work with a girl from Sweden who identifies as black even though her skin is barely a shade darker than mine. When she refered to herself as black I asked her "how's that, you're almost the same color as me?" and she responded by saying that her father was black and she identifies with him and his side of the family the most. When I lived in South Florida I briefly dated a girl from Costa Rica who's skin was darker than President Obama. Her hair was also obviously from African descent. She identified as Latina because she grew up in Latin America and even spoke with a really cute Spanish accent.

[Chloe]

Originally Posted by Xia

I don't know how he identifies himself, but I always wondered why he was usually called "black" when he is really of mixed race. Maybe it's just easier to say, or they are going by outward appearance or perception?
Although I really don't care what his ancestry is as long as he does the job well enough.

See "one-drop rule." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-drop_rule

[Floater]

I sincerely doubt that there are many people of African descent in the USA that don't also have European ancestors.

[ganzfeld]

And I sincerely doubt there are any people on the planet who don't have African ancestors.

[Chloe]

Silly boy. Adam and Eve were not African.

[Logoboros]

That's right. If medieval tradition is to be given credence, they were Asian.

[Habsfan]

I've heard he is also about 65% water.
You know what that means. He has an agenda to turn America Atlantan.
Start growing your gills people!!!!!

[Chloe]

Barack Obama is Aqua-American!

[mags]

Surely you meant Aqua-Kenyan

[DrRocket]

Originally Posted by Chloe

Barack Obama is Aqua-American!

He'll need to produce his original water bill before I believe that.

[fitz1980]

Originally Posted by Xia

I don't know how he identifies himself, but I always wondered why he was usually called "black" when he is really of mixed race. Maybe it's just easier to say, or they are going by outward appearance or perception?

It's mostly the outward appearance thing. He wrote about it in one of his books. He talks about how as a child he used to bring up his mixed heritage when people called him "black" but he finally decided to identify that way since that's how people saw him and he didn't care to ingratiate himself to the kind of people who would care if you are are "white" or not.

[damian]

I demand to see the long form version of his dad's birth certificate.

Do birth certificates even list the "race" of the parents? Mine lists my parents' occupations (for some reason) but doesn't mention race.

[Morning]

Some birth certificates do, damian. Looking at mine (from early 1960's Ohio) lists both parent's "color or race". I haven't seen a recent Ohio birth certificate, but I'd bet it no longer uses that field.

Oddly, mine also lists my father's occupation (construction worker), but there is no field for mother's job (which was at the time, bartender).

Morning
knows a lot about concrete and alcohol.

[Lainie]

I don't remember if DD's 1993 birth certificate mentions race, but mine does -- which isn't surprising, since I was also born in OH in the early 1960s.

[Kallah]

I just checked, since I keep a copy in my wallet for paperwork purposes, and I've got a "certificate of live birth" from 1983, in Illinois. No fields for race, not for me or my folks. Interestingly, I was born on the 13th, but my mother didn't sign off on it 'till the 14th (understandable), and the doctor didn't get around to signing and dating 'till the 17th, and the register finally signed it on the 18th. Man, I better not run for the presidency.

[Lainie]

That kind of delay is not unusual. The parent, doctor and registrar aren't all in the same place, for one thing.

[Swordmaster]

I'm too sick to dig either up, but I remember having to fill in race for both the dds when they were born.

ETA - AFAIK they didn't do anything to to verify that I was telling the truth, though.

[Lainie]

How old are your daughters?

[Lhiannan]

My late 70's Ohio birth certificate just lists parents' names, ages & state of birth. My 5-year old's lists parents' names and birthplace.

(and thanks for reminding me about it! I have to register him for kindergarten tomorrow and had completely forgotten)

[Ulkomaalainen]

One thing I find curious: Barack sr. was born in Kenya. While it were colonial times, I am not sure that "African Negro" would have been a usual insert in a (presumed) "race" field. Either you say only "Negro" (since "African" should be a given in those surroundings, or at least be treated as a given), or some cultural group like Luo - though I presume the former, since not differentiating between different African people is not a new fad.

The thing that bugs me more is: let's say all statements in the OP are true, and let's assume a concept of "race" and "race percentages" exists. So if you've got 3 "Arab", 1 "Black" and 4 "Caucasian" great-grandparents that would make you, as suggested, 37.5%, 12.5% and 50% respectively. But then these great-grandparents have ancestry of their own, so most probably not all of them are 100% of whatever themselves. So how far should we go back? Or, thinking in the other direction: are his daughters 18.75% "Arab" (assuming there's no such heritage on Michelle Obama's side)? If so, why differentiate more than with Barack. If not, which part of the heritage gets lost and why?

As has been said already, in the end we're (according to today's knowledge) all tracking back to 100% African ancestry in the long run. And you could of course somehow define "Pure Breeds" and "Mudbloods" somehow with losing ancestrical parts after a certain amount of generations - which of course would mean, even if all of your great-great-great-grandparents were 25% Chinese you would not count as Chinese at all. But this cannot defined by parental heritage alone but only by cultural association (see above).

Apart from that, I very much doubt the assertions of the OP.