"Biracial", DNA, and First Lady Michelle Obama

[bijanc]

From Dr. Henry Louis Gates:

http://www.theroot.com/views/michell...addy-and-yours

Dr. Gates learned on the PBS series he references that he has 50% European DNA on his male line.

[Marlow]

Re: "Biracial", DNA, and First Lady Michelle Obam

From Dr. Henry Louis Gates:
http://www.theroot.com/views/michell...addy-and-yours
Dr. Gates learned on the PBS series he references that he has 50% European DNA on his male line.

Which is exactly why the 'black' and 'white' labels are increasingly irrelevant (Pale Sprinters Threads Allusion!). Who the EFF knows what the bloodlines are? I still have no clue why Obama is referred to as 'black'. African-American fits, cuz his dad was Kenyan, but when did we start referring to ourselves by previous ethnicities? From now on please refer to me by my proper appellation, Welsh-English-Scottish-Dutch-American. Or, maybe, by what I put on every form I've filled out in 40 years under 'race': Other.

[bijanc]

John McWhorter Answers Why Obama is Called "Black"

in his NYT take on the Michelle genealogical revelation, Stanford prof/author states:

"..A reader comment I get often these days is a white person asking why I refer to Michelle Obama’s husband as black rather than as half-black and half-white. The reason is because he presents himself as black. He talks about the white part of his heritage, of course, but if he had gone out campaigning explicitly talking himself up as “half-white” (a la Tiger Woods’ “Cablinasian” notion) a great many black Americans would have felt him as primly distancing himself from black culture, and would never have taken him to heart. The typical comment about blacks disavowing full membership is “Wait till he gets pulled over by the cops — then see how white he feels.”

[Rye Catcher]

You wanna be the cop that pulls over Obama for an unsafe lane change in Alabama?

[jazzcyclist]

Re: "Biracial", DNA, and First Lady Michelle Obam

I still have no clue why Obama is referred to as 'black'. African-American fits, cuz his dad was Kenyan, but when did we start referring to ourselves by previous ethnicities?

Obama is referred to as Black because Whites, who have been the dominant culture in this land for the last 200+ years have always treated people who looked like Obama as though they were Black. The founding fathers made these skin color distinctions in the constitution itself, and even the military was segregated by skin color when this nation was founded. Trust me Marlow, if it had been left up to us, there would never have been these distinctions made, because they certainly haven't benefited us in any way.

[SQUACKEE]

Re: "Biracial", DNA, and First Lady Michelle Obam

I still have no clue why Obama is referred to as 'black'. African-American fits, cuz his dad was Kenyan, but when did we start referring to ourselves by previous ethnicities?

Obama is referred to as Black because Whites, who have been the dominant culture in this land for the last 200+ years have always treated people who looked like Obama as though they were Black. The founding fathers made these skin color distinctions in the constitution itself, and even the military was segregated by skin color when this nation was founded. Trust me Marlow, if it had been left up to us, there would never have been these distinctions made, because they certainly haven't benefited us in any way.

exactly, and it must suck to have to post this again. Jazz is right. The phrase we should all know by now is perception is everything.

[bijanc]

Why Is The President "Black?"

Sociologically, those whose appearance bears the phenotypic markings the president has have been treated as "colored", "Negro", and Black by whites in this country. It would have been folly for him to attend Occidental, Columbia, and Harvard, banking on being treated as a child of two white parents would have. We are living in a material world, and if I had met him in college or on the pickup basketball court, I would have thought (among other things, i.e. lefthandedness, height, ears), this guy's Black. His mother and that matriarchal line may be Irish-American, but people in the U.S. call 'em like they seem 'em (unless a person is so physiologically androgynous in a "racial" way as to defy quick analysys).

My sisters are biracial, but when they walk into a restaurant people focus on the complexion they in part inherited from my father, not the stature, vocal tone, or personality traits they inherited from their mom.

[tandfman]

Re: "Biracial", DNA, and First Lady Michelle Obam

even the military was segregated by skin color when this nation was founded.

And long after that as well. President Truman ordered the integration of the US Armed Forces in 1948, and the last all-Black unit wasn't abolished until 1954.

http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/in ... lcome.html