What changed was the attitude of the very same people who, before he announced his candidacy, were neither here nor there about it. How it became and continues to be an issue for so many can only be explained one very disturbing sociological reality: For some blacks and whites, racial barriers provide a wall of comfort and familiarity, a wall they simultaneously (secretly) maintain and (outwardly) decry.
What a pickle for these people. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for them to reap the benefits of either victim or oppressor when others are running around blurring racial lines and compromising racial barriers with legislation and procreation.
Obama has identified himself with every part of his background, as have so many Americans of mixed heritage. Who are all these people who can’t take “mutt” for an answer and get on with their lives? Something about Obama is of such grave concern to them that they’ve made it the centerpiece of their lives, but what is it? It sure can’t be an issue of purity since the number of Americans questioning Obama’s ethnicity far exceeds the number of Americans who can say with any certainty that they are purely black or purely white.
Let s/he who is without genetic integration cast the first… whatever the hell it is you would cast in a situation like this.
Article comments
1 - Joanne Huspek
It's funny, but as someone with a very mixed ethnic heritage, I don't see anyone in colors.
When Tiger Woods was still an unknown and golf nuts were going crazy over his "blackness" I was looking at the other side. To me, he's just as Asian as he is Black. To me, what was more remarkable about him was his skill.
If people are uneasy with color, it's their own problem. However, I do think it's curious that as a culture, we haven't come very far.
2 - Teri Centner
Well said!