Anyway, In Africa, people of mixed race are seen as distinct from Africans, the difference is more marked in some parts of Africa than others. Suffice to say, there are complexities. I get the sense that Barack Obama background and life experiences are qualitatively distinct from most African Americans. There are important differences between people of African descent in North America who came here in the 15th century and recent African immigrants or their progeny like Barack Obama. So I am not even sure that referring to him as African-American is any more or less accurate than to call Teresa Heinz Kerry an African American (which she used to do).
Obama is well situated to transcend the racial divide in the US because he is accessbile to people of all races and classes, he is perceived differently by whites and generally more favourably than they would perceive an 'African American' - and vice versa. It is precisely the fact that he is *not* African American in the traditional that gives him a special cachet and crossover potential.
>From: Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org, furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
>Subject: [lbo-talk] Barack Obama
>Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 15:33:18 -0400
>
>Dwayne wrote:
>
>>Now, every single one of us, when interacting with white people, were
>>understood to be black - differing shades of color and facial structures
>>and the grand, ethnic kaleidoscope notwithstanding, we were all just plain
>>old black folk in the mint julep sipping, lazily relaxing on the front
>>porch minds of America's proudly euro-spawned majority.
>>
>>So I think the MSNBC zero-thought jerkoff squad dig Obama's Harvard aura
>>(everyone loves a Harvard man except perhaps you Yalies) as opposed to
>>Shaprton's preacher man style but the fact of being 'half black' probably
>>never crosses their television addled minds.
>
>I doubt that anyone consciously thinks of Barack Obama as "half black," but
>in his speech he made a point of calling the audience's attention to his
>biracial heritage without labeling his mother "white" and his father
>"black" -- by referring to "an improbable love" near the beginning of his
>speech:
>
><blockquote>On behalf of the great state of Illinois, crossroads of a
>nation, land of Lincoln, let me express my deep gratitude for the privilege
>of addressing this convention. Tonight is a particular honor for me
>because, let's face it, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. My
>father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya.
>He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father,
>my grandfather, was a cook, a domestic servant.
>
>But my grandfather had larger dreams for his son. Through hard work and
>perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place;
>America which stood as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who
>had come before. While studying here, my father met my mother. She was born
>in a town on the other side of the world, in Kansas. Her father worked on
>oil rigs and farms through most of the Depression. The day after Pearl
>Harbor he signed up for duty, joined Patton's army and marched across
>Europe. Back home, my grandmother raised their baby and went to work on a
>bomber assembly line. After the war, they studied on the GI Bill, bought a
>house through FHA, and moved west in search of opportunity.
>
>And they, too, had big dreams for their daughter, a common dream, born of
>two continents. My parents shared not only an improbable love; they shared
>an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. (<a
>href="http://www.dems2004.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=luI2LaPYG&b=131063&ct=158769">"State
>Senator Barack Obama" [Transcript]</a>)</blockquote>
>
>And near the end, Obama emphasized, among other things, "There's not a
>black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America;
>there's the United States of America."
>
>So, it is safe to say that Obama wanted to send a not-so-subtle message
>that he embodies in his biracial person and background a longing for
>race-less America, and it won't be surprising if such a message is more
>pleasing and reassuring than those of older generations of Black
>politicians.
>--
>Yoshie
>
>* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
>* Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/>
>* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
>* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
><http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>,
><http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
>* Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/>
>* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
>* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
>* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>
>___________________________________
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