i have tried very hard on this blog to not be political (at least as far as matters that i am not directly involved in). i have resisted the urge, time and time again, to make political comments- and i have done this for a variety of reasons, which still hold true. but i am going to tread on quasi-political ground, and i hope i don’t drive you too far into crazyville.
i have a real problem with barak obama being referred to as our first “black” president.
don’t get me wrong here, he can have mad props that he is a minority holding the highest office in the land.
but when someone of mixed race is referred to only as the non-white race, it smacks to me of some sort of contamination.
before you totally freak out, please allow me to explain.
one of his parents was black (an actual african, in fact- but more on this later), but one was also white. by calling this 50/50 blend “black” it seems like once you mix a drop of pigment in with white, you become a non-white. once you aren’t “pure” white, you are something else. so, in his case, he is now black. and i wonder, exactly how little of any other coloring does it take to cancel out whiteness? if he had a black grandparent, would he still be the first black president? how about if his grandparent was from india- would he be the first beige president? how little non-white blood does it take to taint one’s whiteness, and do we really want to ski down this slippery slope?
in the case of barak obama, isn’t he equal parts of both? isn’t he just as white as he is black? so why isn’t he our x# white president or our first biracial president? why is it better to call him our first black president (which in fact is a lie) than to give him the credit he is due for who and what he really is?
does his mother cease to exist just because she procreated with a person of color?
so barak obama has half of his identity erased (that of his mother’s genetics) just so that some agenda-driven people can make a false claim of accomplishment.
what i do breathe easy about is that at least when he is called an african-american, that is accurate. he does indeed come from one part african (his aforementioned african father) and one part american (his white bread and apple pie mamma). what i cringe about sometimes is when “african-american” is used to mean black but sound more politically correct.
now, again, stay with me.
if you are black, and you like to be called african-american because you imagine that your people came from africa (but you have no way of knowing for sure because the white people messed you all up when they brought your ancestors over from who-knows-where and didn’t keep track) then you go on ahead. you are absolutely entitled to the respect of choosing your own descriptor. own it and wear it with pride.
but if you are some guilty white person and you mean black and you are trying to be all politically correct and you trip over yourself to not say black when you know good and well that black is what you think and black is what you mean then gosh darn it- say “black”. because i will tell you honestly that the only true african-americans i have ever known in my entire life have been as white as i am and they all have blue eyes and they learned to speak afrikaans in school and they came here when the south african society started falling apart because they were afraid for their lives and they all got laughed out of the financial aid offices in college because (haw haw snicker snicker – “you are not really african-american! that’s for the black kids to get money! not you guys! hahahahaha…”).
so am i some big huge closet racist? (or now some big out-of the-closet racist?) no, i’m really not. i just think that all of this bowing and scraping to try to call people what they aren’t in order to make what they actually are sound somehow more palatable is kind of sick.
because what it really says is that what you are is bad.
i can’t accept that you are black because that is dirty or shameful, so i must make up something kinder and softer to call you. i will invent a euphemism to cloak that hateful word (“black”, which is simple and somewhat elegant). so you become an “african-american” even though you may never have been to africa, may never have known anyone who has been to africa, may have no links whatsoever to africa, and may not even know what it looks like on a map.
yet i can be just plain white.
yes, i know that people are not technically black any more than they are white.
but has it ever occurred to you why there is a double standard? why can i be comfortably called “white” with no icky undertones of hatefulness, but if i call someone “black” i have to defend myself all over the place?
why is white ok, but black is so not?
i know this is not a comfortable topic.
i know this is not easy stuff to say.
even on a super private blog like this one.
so many people say one thing out loud but think something completely different in the privacy of their own minds.
not so much with me.
so yes, i said it…
Oct 10, 2012 @ 00:35:26
Yes. Yes. Yes. this. Exactly. But I wonder sometimes why I don’t get to be called “caucasion” when I fill out the form…”African American, Native American, Indonesian, white”…I feel lonely and not very white. I’m not white. I’m caucasian. and I’m American. So maybe I could be Caucasian American. But instead, I’m just a whitey. I also wonder the same thing you mentioned here about our President and I’d think itd go alot farther toward calming racial tensions if he was referred to as “The First Biracial President” which is exactly accurate. I also wonder why his mother and his white grandparents who sacrificed and loved him so much didn’t get more credit. He was raised and cared for by white people who mattered. That never gets mentioned much.
I appreciate the common sense in what you posted even if its not politically correct.
Oct 10, 2012 @ 00:46:43
I think he self-refers as black/is referred to as black because that’s the community he identifies with…just my $0.02
Oct 10, 2012 @ 01:00:25
My Father is from India and as white as snow. Does that make me or my blue eyed brothers 1/2 Indian? Or my kids 1/4? Just wondering……
Oct 10, 2012 @ 01:19:07
Well, you shouldn’t have said it, because it was a silly thing to say.
unless you are saying that if you saw Barack Obama walking down the street and didn’t know it was Barack Obama, and all the details of the ancestry of the president of the united states, that you wouldn’t know he was black, you are just being silly. (btw black people are still black in Africa, and black South Africans are referred to as black South Africans. African-American is an exclusively American term, so you have that backwards, too.)
Also, it was white people that made up the rule that any teeny tiny bit of African or any other non-European ancestry was enough to justify laws about who could marry whom, where people could live, what schools people could go to, etc, etc. ad nauseam
Oct 10, 2012 @ 02:07:10
Technically he is the first mulatto President.
The First Amendment (Freedom of the press, etc) means you can say whatever you want on your blog. And you should do so.
I am old enough to remember the 60s and the culture wars about what people should be called. For example, Martin Luther King Jr called black people Negros. On the other hand, Malcolm X preferred the term Black. Personally I think “African-American” is just as dumb as calling people Irish-American and don’t forget our good friends the Asian-Americans or the Mexican-Americans. Too many syllables if nothing else. Such labels only divide us.
Has the term “melting pot” become as obsolete as the “marketplace of ideas”?
Keep up the good work. So, no more lice or parking tickets? How does your garden grow? Here in Ohio I am tearing mine all out in preparation for a layer of hay for winter fallow mulch. (Although I am waiting for a bunch of garlic in the mail) which hopefully will overwinter under the hay and be GARLIC!! YEA! in Spring.
No matter who wins the upcoming elections, Spring WILL come.
Oct 10, 2012 @ 02:08:27
Oops. Not hay: straw.
Oct 10, 2012 @ 10:22:05
My thoughts exactly; only you put it into words much better than I could have.
Oct 10, 2012 @ 10:24:10
totally agree! glad you had the guts/nerve to put it in words and writing! i have an aquaintance who is of a black father and a white mother. father is gone now, mother is still with us…she continues to put down the white race and how we/they are all racist…yet she denies her white side. when i asked her in an email why she denies her white side, she ignored the email!
i am half lebanese, second generation born this country. i’m not caucasion, i’m not black, i’m not indian, i’m not eskimo…yet if i put down ‘other’ there is so much major hassle its pathetic. i’m lebanese…i’m scottish, i’m german…i’m a human!
Oct 10, 2012 @ 10:25:19
I agree about Obama. He is half white (as if that’s open for debate). And even though I’m white, I have one nephew that’s half Mexican, two nephews that are half black, (and one niece on the way,) and 5 nieces and nephews that are 1/4 Tongan, so I’m rather familiar with mixed races. And yes, the nephews that are half black call themselves black, not African Americans. Same with my nephew that’s half Mexican. He’s half Mexican and makes no bones about it. One point I want to make though. Racism doesn’t acknowledge “half.” When a person is being discriminated against, or is the victim of a hate crime, there’s no “Oh wait, your half black, so we’ll only beat you up half as hard.” Or “You’re half black, so we’ll only not hire half of you.” Racism tends to discriminate based on skin color alone. I’ve known half black people that could pass for white. They had an easier time blending into society. There was a show on TV a few years back that featured fraternal twins that looked as if they were different races. The parents were primarily different races, (Obviously the parent that was black has some white dna in him) and one twin inherited the “white colored genes.” and one inherited the darker color from the darker parent. Even as toddlers, the parents (and kids as they got older) noticed how people treated the “white” child vs. the “black” child, even though technically they both were mixed. I don’t know, just thought I’d through that out.
Oct 10, 2012 @ 11:39:14
I’m glad you said it. When I take surveys, they ask me my heritage and they list “White” I always think WHITE IS MY COLOR not my heritage. I’m Irish/German/American!
Oct 10, 2012 @ 11:40:28
Naomi, I think he is catering to the black vote which is why he doesn’t talk about being raised by white people.
Oct 10, 2012 @ 13:02:26
Hey Julie, you have done it again!!
. I think the big issue is that we have to talk about color at all! We all eat sleep, talk,love, and poop,the same way. If we are citizens we are all Americans! Yes we all have different backgrounds that got us where we are. But we are all human beings and we should treat each other like it. I wish everyone out there saw the world like you do 
Oct 10, 2012 @ 14:38:25
Well now you’ve done it, you went and planted a racial garden right in the front yard and we are all now left to decide if to sow such seeds is perhaps “suitable” or not in this neighborhood.
Now that you have unleashed a pack of ”mixed color” wild race “dawgs” (that term works for everyone btw)… just quick check to see that they all have current registration tags because it important to identify each individual by selective sub groups by the “mass-pack” on the issue of “race” to which we have not grown mature enough to recognize as simply, intrinsically and ontologically as to see that “we are all just one” in every aspect including “race”… the human race.
So there you go… it’s black and white in a grey shaded world.
Oct 10, 2012 @ 14:44:14
Start the race revolution… when you fill out forms that ask for: “race” do what I do… check the box for: “other” and write in: “human.”
The magic in this is so simply “who could argue” with you claiming just “human” as your race?
Oct 10, 2012 @ 15:34:42
ah yes- i did this for many years! and can you believe that sometimes i used to get forms returned to me???? i guess even then my answers were unsuitable…
Oct 10, 2012 @ 15:35:28
yup…indeedy
Oct 10, 2012 @ 15:36:26
oh you subversive guy, you! you’d better watch the company you keep- it all starts with those craigslist ads, you know…
Oct 10, 2012 @ 15:37:28
but that’s so much harder to input on all the forms- hahahahaha
Oct 10, 2012 @ 15:46:41
yep- it’s very interesting sociologically… and the racism points are dead on. which just goes to show how deep the idea runs that if you have even a bit of non-white people feel free to hate you all the same. i once read a great book (i wish i could remember the title) about black people who “passed” as white during segregation and the guilt and shame they felt about betraying their race in order to get ahead. on the one hand they enjoyed privledge and stature in society, but on the other hand they were on the inside of so much hate and detestable behavior that they had to just swallow in order to keep their secret… there was even a story about one woman who married a man not knowing he was actually black until they had a baby a few shades darker than both parents- oops… race is a crazy subject indeed…
Oct 10, 2012 @ 15:47:57
yep- bottom line: we’re all a grab bag!
Oct 10, 2012 @ 15:48:14
well thanks for that!
Oct 10, 2012 @ 15:58:25
great perspective, as always! just so we’re clear, you’re not wishing lice or parking tickets on me so i’ll stop being controversial, are you?
there is someone on the radio (laura ingraham) with a book called ‘shut up and sing’ about how singers and actors and such should be quiet when it comes to politics (if they have no background or insight) and just entertain people, which is what they are actually good at. so perhaps i should call my next post ‘shut up and garden’ or ‘shut up and raise chickens’. perhaps ‘shut up and do laundry’? hahahahaha- obviously this is all said in complete fun and with no malice whatsoever, but since you can’t see me giggling as i write this, i figured i’d better clarify… and, yes, spring will come, which is good, because i am already cold (which is no joke- i have been in 3 layers of clothes since late august and *h is quite perplexed to see me going to bed in sweatshirts and under 2 comforters so early in the season. so spring is sounding mighty good!). enjoy your garlic, and feel free to post recipes 
Oct 10, 2012 @ 16:00:46
ok, i have to say that i’m not even following your supposed corrections of me, so let’s just call you correct and i’ll thank you for pointing it all out.
Oct 10, 2012 @ 16:05:42
um, i think the point is that who cares? i think the point is that you are who you are and that you can identify yourself based on your racial make-up or not. so do you consider yourself 1/2 indian? does it serve any purpose? does it make you feel more noble and elevated or is it a label someone smashes on your head to put you in a box because that allows them to judge you and attach stereotypes to you that have nothing to do with you? so take it or leave it as you wish, but don’t look to me as the arbitor of your ancestry, i guess…
Oct 10, 2012 @ 16:06:24
ya- what’s up with that?
Oct 10, 2012 @ 16:07:15
can i call you casper from now on? (hahahahaha)
Oct 10, 2012 @ 16:21:50
I fully agree with you. I live in Brazil and we have very few 100 percent black. There are many shades of chocolate, they say coffee with cream here. Yet, public universities have to save 10 percent of their openings for Negro or black people. I know a family with a white mother, and part Negro father. They have twin daughters. One is truly white and the other would qualify to being black. Yes, we live in a difficult world. Thanks for you blogs.
Oct 10, 2012 @ 16:40:55
I absolutely agree. When I first heard Obama being referred to as black, I thought, well, no. Biracial. I think, in general, he’s referred to as black because he “appears” more black than white. And he’s married to a black woman, so he’s “chosen” his race.
I think of him as biracial.
I have a lot of black folks in my (originally) white family. And a few other races tossed in to add to the general happiness. We tend to look at each other as FAMILY. I often miss the color because I think of my family members as individuals.
And – I don’t think this writing is political. I think it’s more thoughtful. Sadly, many of the people who exclaim the most over Obama’s blackness are the ones who hate him the most. His complexion is about all they can see.
Oct 10, 2012 @ 23:21:57
and thanks for your thoughtful comment!
Oct 10, 2012 @ 23:22:35
you know, i think that’s pretty true…
Oct 11, 2012 @ 08:13:41
I’m half Adam and half Eve.
Oct 11, 2012 @ 12:04:08
well said!
Nov 01, 2012 @ 13:32:43
This is black solidarity at its most self-defeating. It’s why, as the President hands out goodies to other core groups in the Democratic base, African-Americans get squat. On the campaign trial, Obama delivered to Latinos his own version of The DREAM Act, gays received their long-sought presidential endorsement of same-sex marriage, and union workers get a job-protection intervention directed at China.
Jan 12, 2013 @ 18:49:38
I am white. My husband is black. African-Americans are, like you say, people who emigrated here from Africa, just as Chinese Americans are first generation emigrants. And their children are simply Americans. It’s ridiculous. Hubby feels the same. And our children are “multi-racial”, which I also have a problem with, frankly…