Obama ’08: The Race Issue

7:11 pm EST February 9th, 2007 | News | 13 Comments

Apparently Sen. Obama is black.

When asked by Kroft if growing up in a white household had caused him to make a decision to be black, Obama replies, “I’m not sure I decided it. I think … if you look African-American in this society, you’re treated as an African-American. It’s interesting though, that now I feel very comfortable and confident in terms of who I am and where I stake my ground. But I notice that … I’ve become a focal point for a racial debate.”

Obama’s wife also addresses the race issue when asked by Kroft whether she fears for her husband’s life as a black candidate. “I don’t lose sleep over it because the realities are that … as a black man … Barack can get shot going to the gas station,” says Michelle Obama. “You can’t make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen.”

(emphasis by me)

UPDATE: You may have seen Debra Dickerson on Colbert Thursday night, pushing this silly thesis she wrote about here on Salon. Based on her theorizing and I guess a newfangled purity test, someone like myself isn’t african-american/black (because my ancestors were slaves in Jamaica and not in the USA). But yet, there I am in the mirror, black like Barack.

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13 Responses to “Obama ’08: The Race Issue”

  1. pug says:
    February 9, 2007 at 7:18 pm

    Iwish I knew how to post linnks because there is a post on The Carpetbagger Report about Tucker Carlson attacking Obama’s church. Obama attends a Unitied Curch of Christ congregation ( I think). Anyway it’s a large mostly African America Christian church in his hometown, but Carlson claimms that it isn’t mainstream annd isn’t Christian.
    Really conservatives will say annything.
    Of course the hysterical nitwits thhat have been screaminng aby Amanda Marcotte will have nothhing to sayy about Carlson attacking Obama’s religion.

  2. Oliver says:
    February 9, 2007 at 7:43 pm

    This is what you’re talking about: “Tucker Carlson on Obama’s church: “[I]t’s hard to call that Christianity”"

  3. mambochicken23 says:
    February 9, 2007 at 8:14 pm

    Can’t you just imagine the Klan in a meeting, planning to burn a giant cross in some guy’s yard… and then someone asks, “Oh wait, hey… my file says that this guy’s dad emigrated from Zaire in 1955. He’s not descended from slaves, so he’s not black! Let’s forget this guy, let’s go to the next one on the list…”

    Because in American society, your ancestry matters OH so much more than your skin color. Bah!

  4. James E. Powell says:
    February 9, 2007 at 8:57 pm

    A paraphrase of something I read in some forgotten book about Jewish people:

    If you ever forget that you’re black, a white person will remind you.

  5. duder says:
    February 9, 2007 at 9:02 pm

    Seems to me that if George Bush, Jr. says you’re “articulate,” then you might just be black. If Joe Biden says you’re “articulate,” you probably are. And if Tucker Carlson thinks your church is a wee bit too dark for his bowtie, then you almost certainly are.

    (someone else somewhere else also said this. I can’t remmember who or where.)

  6. pedromd07 says:
    February 9, 2007 at 9:47 pm

    wouldn’t it be fun to have a black candidate that people judged based on his/her positions rather than the color of their skin?

    Isn’t funny the liberals who consider themselves so tolerant, are the ones who are making such a big deal out of the level of melanin in the guys skin?

  7. mdhåtter says:
    February 9, 2007 at 9:51 pm

    oh pedro, you’ve won me over with your snarky wit. Will you marry me?

    I live in mass, it’d be okay.

  8. Oliver Willis says:
    February 10, 2007 at 12:16 am

    It’s funny that every serious black candidate for president, including the current candidate, has been a Democrat.

    Yeah, it’s funny.

  9. Duros62 says:
    February 10, 2007 at 10:43 am

    When asked by Kroft if growing up in a white household had caused him to make a decision to be black,…

    Wait, I’m confused, here. This is something you can decide?

    I was going to say something yesterday about Ann Coulter on the Today Show (OT, WTF is she doing on the Today Show?) saying that the first black president should be an American black president, reiterating, I .. guess.., the point that because he isn’t descended from American slaves, it doesn’t count.

    What the hell is wrong with these people?

  10. Nimrod Gently says:
    February 10, 2007 at 1:25 pm

    There is Alan Keyes, at a pinch.

  11. Kitz Principle says:
    February 11, 2007 at 10:44 pm

    This is nothing new, racists have always wanted to fix others with an identity of their choosing.

  12. C.S.Strowbridge says:
    February 13, 2007 at 12:56 am

    I know I’m late to this party, but how’s this for a definition of black:

    You’re black is the Klan would lynch you for whistling at a white woman.

  13. Adam Herman says:
    February 14, 2007 at 2:17 pm

    African-Americans have made it a habit in recent years to explain away their underachievement compared to black immigrants by claiming black immigrants don’t share their history.