Not sure which is the weirder assumption.

No Weisman, Obama was already immersed in the black culture for the sole reason that he was BLACK regardless of how or where he was raised.

TruthSeeker said…

“Are these awards solely for our amusement, or is something sent to the recipient? Maybe make up an official looking diploma and send it off via email. Really, you ought to share the love.”

Tue Jun 24, 11:36:00 AM 2008

“I agree. These fools are not going to get it unless it’s in their faces. That was very offensive. And no, dws, he won’t be a ‘tragic mulatto’ when he does something they don’t like –”

“he’ll just be coal BLACK.”

-Nita:

You’re nicer than I am (refering to your comment).

“he won’t be a ‘tragic mulatto’ when he does something they don’t like”

He’ll be a “damn nigger”

I think that on a traffic stop at 2 a.m. no racist white state trooper is going to care who raised Barack Obama. White folk who talk about being beyond race haven’t tried to catch a cab with a person of color in New York at night. (and they haven’t walked through airport security with any Arabs lately, either – or dark-skinned Jews with beards, or Pakistanis, or , or)

another story – a colleague twenty+ years ago was having a secret affair with the scion of a prominent NY African American family; nobody who was mentioned around here lately so it ain’t Paterson. Anyway.

She was Italian from a very racist Queens family. He was Ivy League all the way, and her biggest cultural issue was the class difference – his was so much higher than hers. She had never been around people who owned big yachts, limos, and had tailgate parties at the college game.

One time she was in an elevator with the Scion and three of his other Ivy League, AA, gorgeous, conservatively dressed, rich friends, all of them ex-basketball players from Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Whatever. The doors opened to show a white woman waiting for the elevator. She took one look at the four guys, stepped back and said – uh, no, I’m waiting for somebody. My friend said she looked terrified. It was a pivotal moment for my friend – she was outraged. How could that woman think that her Scion and his buddies were bad guys? Of course the guys laughed it off.

Meanwhile my friend never could bring the guy home to meet her parents – didn’t matter how rich he was or how important his family – he was the Black guy (you know they said worse) and that was that. Believe me his heart was not broken – he was just playing around.

Most white folk in America don’t get a chance to see this sort of event play out so they are utterly clueless.

Very interesting to read the comments here. It’s waking up my awareness… so easy for me to blend in as a light-skinned half-Arab. “Oh, you aren’t really an Arab, you don’t wear a veil, you don’t sound like an Arab, and you aren’t ANGRY like they are. And of course you’re a feminist from a feminist family, who ever heard of Arab feminists?” – heard it most of my life.

This is what people of color talk about when they (we?) say that white people are trying to erase us, erase our identities. If we play by the rules of the dominant culture then we get told we aren’t really Black or Arab or Chinese at all, we’re just honorary white people.

Rikyrah,
Remember now there was that memo that it changed to 1/8 or 1/4 meant you were black. So if you have a grandparent that is black, then so are you.
That is if it is a black white mix, because the African features over power the white. Does not count for Asian & Black or Native American & Black. There are rules to this thing.
Of course, it was all about property and rights. The meter on 1/8 or 1/4 never moved. It is still on the books, if you search for it.
But I feel silly even talking about this “issue”.

Maybe you can compare it with how some people feels about Jimi Hendrix.
The wrong is with these people, tho.

::

That wasn’t the point I was arguing against.

I may not have made myself clear and I probably can’t so I’ll just move on from this.

Ain’t that the truth.

I’d like the memo too…when did America give up the ‘ one drop’ rule?

I keep on bringing this up..if you saw Obama on the street, all you’d say is that he’s a light-skinned Brother.

If you stood him, side by side, with Dark Sith Ford, and asked Black folks to tell you which one they thought was the bi-racial one, come on now…how many folks would choose Obama?

preach it.

When Rev. Wright came around…he was BLACK.

When ‘bitter’ came around…he was an UPPITY BLACK.

Yep, we know the rules.

Tue Jun 24, 11:36:00 AM 2008

I agree. These fools are not going to get it unless it’s in their faces. That was very offensive. And no, dws, he won’t be a ‘tragic mulatto’ when he does something they don’t like —

he’ll just be coal BLACK.

Craig- You and I both know that in that senario, he would still be considered a black child adopted by a white family until the day he died.

But, what kills me most is that most of these strange comments are coming from people who grew up in a time where half black and white meant you were, umm… black and you were treated as such. Then should have sent out a memo when that changed.

That’s why T. Morrison calling B. Clinton “black” made me sick. Why does someone have to be a degenerate pig to get called that? I have to shrug it off, especially when some of us embrace it so enthusiastically.

Although, maybe if Obama was brought up “black” his wife would be light skinned or white. So if he’s “white”, he’s got great taste in pursuing and marrying Michelle.

-Nope.
He’d be considered a thug.

BWA HA H HA HA HA HA HA HA

It’s like folks are Boo Boo, Da Fool. Um, the GOP has been playing the ‘ Race Card’ since 1968. Learn some HISTORY, Tara. It’s called ‘ The Southern Strategy’. And, because Obama is doing a preemptive strike on them, reminding folks of what it is, HE’s the bad guy?

GTFOH.

Race in America is complex. We all know it. It’s a social construct that goes, in fact, beyond skin color. And it’s often conflated with class. But we all also know that colorism is also real, even among black people.

I don’t have to type the cultural figures of speech that equate whiteness and lightness with betterness, do I?

I didn’t think so.

Weisman is quoted without any context and that’s too bad.

Like I conceded, Weisman could be Pat Buchanan for all I know.

But this comment in its full context doesn’t make him so.