One thing that's bothering me ALOT

Connie · Post by **Connie** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:32 pm

This may be my last post on this board because of what I may start.

I want to be open and I don't know if anyone else has thought about this but....

Obama is not the first black president. To me, he is the first bi-racial president, which means more to me then anything else.

How can "they" call him that when he is 1/2 white? Wouldn't it mean more to alot more people? If he was going to be labeled anything, call him what he is, bi-racial.

loria · Post by **loria** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:36 pm

You bring up a valid point. i think though that it has to do with the historical concept of race--so maybe that's it?

soxfan22 · Post by **soxfan22** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:36 pm

Or "mulato"...Ha! Yes girls, it is still an outdated term that I don't know how to spell!

Connie, this is the ultimate can of worms.

loria · Post by **loria** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:41 pm

soxfan, i really do hope that you DO NOT understand that, for many , the term 'mullato' is perceived as insulting, racist, and pejorative?
And that you just put that out there because you didn't understand better.

MrB · Post by **MrB** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:41 pm

Connie wrote:This may be my last post on this board because of what I may start.

I want to be open and I don't know if anyone else has thought about this but....

Obama is not the first black president. To me, he is the first bi-racial president, which means more to me then anything else.

How can "they" call him that when he is 1/2 white? Wouldn't it mean more to a lot more people? If he was going to be labeled anything, call him what he is, bi-racial.

Do you think if he walked into a whites only restaurant 50 years ago that he could have gotten half a sandwich?

How many African Americans are not bi-racial? With the rapings, house slaves, etc? Hell, how many have Thomas Jefferson's genes?

He is the first black president.

loria · Post by **loria** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:44 pm

Mr. B...excellent points.....thank you

sailorgirl · Post by **sailorgirl** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:46 pm

Very true Mr. B

Pia · Post by **Pia** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:54 pm

How about adopting the concept that he is a human being and not a "color" - just sayin'

Pia

soxfan22 · Post by **soxfan22** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:55 pm

Pia wrote:How about adopting the concept that he is a human being and not a "color" - just sayin'

Pia

Now we're talkin'.

DELETED · Post by **DELETED** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:57 pm

DELETED

pjayer · Post by **pjayer** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 8:10 pm

No black or white America--just United States of America

A line in my speech at the 04 Democratic National Convention struck a chord. "There is not a black American and white American and Latino America and Asian American--there is the United States of America." For them, it seems to capture a vision of America finally freed from the past of Jim Crow and slavery, Japanese internment camps and Mexican braceros, workplace tensions and cultural conflict--an America that fulfills Dr. King's promise that we be judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character.

I have no choice but to believe this vision. As the child of a black man and white woman, born in the melting pot of Hawaii, with a sister who is half-Indonesian, but who is usually mistaken for Mexican, and a brother-in-law and niece of Chinese descent, with some relatives who resemble Margaret Thatcher and others who could pass for Bernie Mac, I never had the option of restricting my loyalties on the basis of race or measuring my worth on the basis of tribe.

Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.231 Oct 1, 2006

MrB · Post by **MrB** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 8:12 pm

pjayer wrote:...with some relatives who resemble Margaret Thatcher and others who could pass for Bernie Mac...

Best Line EVER!

flip-flop · Post by **flip-flop** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 8:16 pm

To ignore his racial background as it pertains to this moment in history is naive. Just as it would be silly to ignore the fact that Hillary Clinton is a woman should she have (or if she ever does) ascend to the highest office in the land.

It speaks volumes to the millions of Americans who are minorities, perceived or otherwise, as to what they too can dream to accomplish. With it comes the end of excuses.

And Soxfan, as the mama to two biracial children, "Mulatto" is 1) not commonly used in the this country and 2) considered offensive by many who happen to be biracial. Why having been told this in past postings would you choose to continue to use the term. Right, to inflame.

I try not to let you offend me because I know that your goal in using the term is to goad and not to illuminate or add constructive content to the discussion. Perhaps that's why people are so quick to judge you as a racist. At a minimum, you are painfully insensitive.

Think about your tiny daughter. Think about someone using a term such as that to sum up their being. It is sickening.

Pete (Mr. Marcia) · Post by **Pete (Mr. Marcia)** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 9:08 pm

Connie wrote:This may be my last post on this board because of what I may start.

I want to be open and I don't know if anyone else has thought about this but....

Obama is not the first black president. To me, he is the first bi-racial president, which means more to me then anything else.

How can "they" call him that when he is 1/2 white? Wouldn't it mean more to alot more people? If he was going to be labeled anything, call him what he is, bi-racial.

Who are the "they" to whom you refer?

soxfan22 · Post by **soxfan22** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 9:08 pm

Flip - please in the future do not invoke my children. I appreciate it.

As for the term in question, I found a few opinions from people on the Internet:

I am half white and black....Mulatto. I am also from Louisiana, where prejudice will forever exist. Mulatto is not a light-skinned African-American. Mulatto is a person with a white parent and a black parent, too put it correctly. You are not African-American cause you are black. You are African-American, if you were born in Africa, came to America, and legally became an American. Anyway, yes, I use it. It is who I am and it is my race. How can anyone of blended blood consider themselves too be one or the other? You can't....you are Mulatto.

I prefer mulatto because it is exactly what i am
biracial is a more vague description

Also i highly disagree with mulatto and all that "offensive" as far as i know it could stem from either the arabian "muwallad" or the spanish "mule"-thing, and ive seen arguments going both way so i see no reason why one should be credited more than the other.

I love mulatto, and then again why would i not, it represents who i am, and i am thoroughly happy about that

Thought this one was funny...

You should say "bi-racial" to be P.C. with someone you don't know, but some people who are 1/2 Black and 1/2 White acutally prefer "mulatto" because it's the only word that signifies being 1/2 Black and 12/ White. Also, the "bi-racial" thing has limits...what if, for example, Lenny Kravitz (who is 1/2 Black and 1/2 White Jewish) had a baby with an Asian woman...would the baby be bi-racial? Tri-racial?

And this excerpt taken from a book titled "Creole" by Sybil Klein:

"The complexity that surrounds the word "creole" reflects the intracacies of social status and Creole identity, and of course, the inclusiveness of the term itself. Historians point out that most free people of color were racially mixed. John Blassingame explains, ""Social classes grew up around color primarily because a MULATTO was generally a free man (77 percent of free Negroes in 1860 were mulattoes) and a black man was almost always a slave (74 percent of the slaves in 1860 were black)."

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