I’ve been asked more or less the same question, though on a much much much smaller stage than Barack Obama. It’s really ridiculous and black America really needs to get over it. Really.
Speaking before the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Las Vegas, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) directly addressed the charge that he is “not black enough.”
He joked about the issue at first, poking fun at a stereotype of blacks. “I apologize for being a little bit late,” he said, “but you guys keep asking if I’m black enough, so I figured I would stroll in.”
But he turned serious about such questions. “We should ask ourselves why that is,” he said. “It is not because of my physical appearance presumably. It’s not because of my track record… I think in part we’re still locked in this notion if you appeal to white folks, there must be something wrong.”
This is from the same ridiculous school as the “acting white” charge, the belief that if you don’t act a certain - stereotypical - way, well you just couldn’t possibly be black enough.
I really think that any person calling themselves a journalist who comments on a presidential candidate’s appearance, or ponders questions about whether they’re black, or white, or brown, or manly, or womanly enough, ought to be forced to perform before a Barnum and Bailey audience for a year as JoJo the Chicken-head Eating Geek.
Oh, wait a minute. That’s how I feel about all Beltway pundits. My bad.
Obama is just calling the kettle a spade.
I think the real answers to obtain are “Who is raising the issue of his color” and “Why are they raising it?”
I think it is not African-Americans who are REALLY raising the issue. I think the issue is being raised to drive a wedge between Obama and some African Americans. Just to reduce his support.
I don’t think it is being done by a demoractic opponent. It’s probably a white republican.
Just a guess, but I do not hink it is a wild one.
Eh, the first I heard it mentioned was on Colbert Report, where somebody I hadn’t heard of before who was African-American said that Obama hadn’t shared the African-American experience because he spent a lot of time overseas and wasn’t poor.
Whether or not it’s true, it’s also irrelevant. I can confidently say that we’ll have a black President in our lifetimes. Perhaps a few. But I can guarantee that none will have lived that experience she’s talking about except in their youths. The Presidency is an office for achievers, so anyone who gets that office, their “black experience” will have ended in some people’s eyes the day they went off to Harvard or Oxford.