I'd been wondering about this.

[tking]

The media has been all over Obama's being the "first African-American" Presidential nominee, but the fact of the matter is that he's bi-racial. And as this article (http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/09/btsc.obama.race/?iref=mpstoryview) points out, he fits into that category on the census. I may be being a bit picky, but it seems to me that this "first African-American" title is a half-truth. Obama has, himself, stated that he is born of a white mother and a black father and that's why he wants to bridge the racial issues. If that is so, why would he let the "first African-American" label continue to be the "fame" of his nomination?

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I guess it was an article I read yesterday about the word feud going on between Clint Eastwood and Spike Lee about Eastwood's movies about Iwo Jima and the raising of the American flag. Lee was all hot about the fact that Eastwood didn't have any black soldiers depicted in the events he made these movies about. Eastwood's response was that Lee needed to read history because the particular events he'd made movies (http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=317895) about didn't involve any black soldiers in the main theme of them. My first thought was...okay, so now we're expected to re-write history to make sure nothing is seen as racist? That brought me around to wondering a little more strongly about Obama's subtle deception.

I wouldn't vote for him anyway, but thinking about that made me wonder about the integrity of someone who blatantly uses a part of his race as a selling point. I wonder how his mom feels about that? And I wonder how Mr. Lee thinks on that issue...after all, even though Obama looks more black than white, there IS that white half of him. Kinda like there WERE black soldiers in WWII, but they weren't one of the men that raise the flag. Hmmmmm. Truth anyone?

Just thinking out loud here ;-).

[Tallen]

Hey..., some of my kids are half and half. When we deal with the State of Michigan we have to tell them their Black. One time I brought up the fact that they are half White and got a great big lecture by the Social Worker not to point that out because they are considered Black. When I pointed out that their biological dad's parents were Black and Mexican/American Indian, making them even less Black than half, they said not to bring that up because it could mess up their social considerations as far as benefits.

Sheeesh..., and they weren't even nice about it. http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_18_7.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZNxdm824MNUS)

[tking]

Hey..., some of my kids are half and half. When we deal with the State of Michigan we have to tell them their Black. One time I brought up the fact that they are half White and got a great big lecture by the Social Worker not to point that out because they are considered Black. When I pointed out that their biological dad's parents were Black and Mexican/American Indian, making them even less Black than half, they said not to bring that up because it could mess up their social considerations as far as benefits.

Sheeesh..., and they weren't even nice about it. http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_18_7.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZNxdm824MNUS)

Whoa! What's up with that?! Were they talking about stuff like Affirmative Action and that kind of thing? Good grief. I'd think multi-racial would get just as much consideration as "black." It's weird how some of that stuff works.

Irony of ironies. I have Cherokee and Choctaw blood in my ancestry. Enough to qualify for lots of things, BUT, my ancestors would NOT sign the roll. To them it meant they would no longer be Native American Indians. Nowadays, try talking to the Cherokee Nation. They are quick to the point of being rude that if you're name isn't on the roll, they don't want to hear from you because *drum roll* you can't be considered truly Native American Indian of the Civilized Tribes unless your name is on the roll. This isn't relevant, I know, but it just amazes me at how this racial/ethnic/heritage stuff is so warped.