Is it correct to classify Obama as the first black president"

[kılıç_mehmet]

While his mother is white?
Doesn't this just make him just another white president in a long line of white presidents? I don't know about the Luo people, whom constitute his paternal descendance, but is it the case for his maternal descendence, where your ethnicity is determined by your father, or your mother?

[Minimalist]

No it isn't....but you don't understand the racist mentality of a lot of Americans.

For the Alabama crowd any black would be too much black.

[kılıç_mehmet]

No it isn't....but you don't understand the racist mentality of a lot of Americans.

For the Alabama crowd any black would be too much black.

Let me ask as such than;
Is Obama more in touch with his african roots, or his *white* roots?

[Minimalist]

My grandparents came from Italy in 1912. Am I in touch with my Italian roots?

Well, I like lasagna and red wine. Does that count?

Obama may be in touch with his African-American heritage/culture. I doubt he knows all that much more about "Africa" than any of the rest of us.

[downbeatplumb]

He don't look white to me.
But that shouldnt matter as long as he does his job well.

[5thHorseman]

Except for singing Al Green, well, he's a corporate schmuck and he's definitely 60/40 honkey.

[Tiberius]

My question: Who cares?

[downbeatplumb]

My question: Who cares?

Tea partiers?

[kılıç_mehmet]

My grandparents came from Italy in 1912. Am I in touch with my Italian roots?

Well, I like lasagna and red wine. Does that count?

Obama may be in touch with his African-American heritage/culture. I doubt he knows all that much more about "Africa" than any of the rest of us.

Well, he certainly is an african-american of the newer generations.
Meaning, he knows exactly of which tribe or ethnicity in Africa he is, and from which country his paternal line comes from, Kenya.
Under that context, he is nothing like the common african american whose parents came to Africa as slaves from unknown parts of the african continent, from tribes they themselves have little knowledge on.
That's why the prominent African-American nationalist organisation known as the "nation of Islam" claimed heritage from a fictional "Shabazz" tribe to account for their lineage. At least you can account for your heritage, by stating that your grandparents were Italian.

Those people can't. And once again, Obama's mother was of european-american heritage, so that makes him as much as a white-american person, as a black-american person.
However, the fact he's hailed as the first black president shows the extent to which the false notion that one's skin colour determines one's heritage is prevailant in America.

He don't look white to me.
But that shouldnt matter as long as he does his job well.

But he is partly white. 50-50, you see.
And he did not even grow up within the rest of the afro-american community, like you know, a stereotypical ghetto.

[Rev. Rye]

While his mother is white?
Doesn't this just make him just another white president in a long line of white presidents? I don't know about the Luo people, whom constitute his paternal descendance, but is it the case for his maternal descendence, where your ethnicity is determined by your father, or your mother?

Well, technically, for the longest time in America, if a person had any black ancestry, even if they looked white, they were considered black.

Case in point:

This is Homer Plessy. In 1892, he was kicked off a whites-only train car because it turned out he had one-eighth black ancestry.

For what it's worth, over 58% of Black americans have as much (or more) white ancestry as Homer Plessy had black ancestry. And I have no doubt that, if we were to find the percentage of Black people who had any white ancestry, the number would be higher, for obvious reasons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e33aW5PYegQ
Indeed, black intellectual Henry Louis Gates has more than 50% black ancestry, so, technically, he should be even less Black than Obama. So, in the end, ultimately, all this goes to show how malleable our concept of race really is.

And besides, everyone knows that Bill Clinton was the first Black President!