Ahh Yes! The Question That Will Never Die

When Obama first announced his candidacy for POTUS, it was liberals who kept asking the question “Is he Black enough?” Then somewhere down the road he became ‘officially’ Black. I’ve always dismissed the whole thing as silly because while the actual brown paper bag test is something that has been abandoned years ago, I still believe that it something that has morphed itself into more of a mental exercise in this day and age.

For example, I have seen biracial individuals look white as the driven snow who were quickly dismissed as being “White”. On the other hand I have also seen biracial individuals dark as me who feel a sense of relief that they appear to be “Black”. Here’s a quick look at the silly scale folks use to qualify a biracial person as either Black or White. I’ll use Obama as my subject.

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If he married a light-skinned Black woman or White woman: White 😦
If he ran as a Republican: White 😦
If he inherited blue eyes and wavy hair: White 😦

Now here is the other side of the coin

He married a dark-skinned woman: Black 🙂
He ran as a Democrat: Black 🙂
His dark skin is consistent with someone who considered “Black” in this country: Black 🙂

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I am so glad I do not live my life on such a ridiculous scale.

Now if you think all of this is silly, check this out.

“So yes, Barack Obama is black, despite having a white mother, despite having white grandparents, white great-grandparents, etc. He may be a cousin of Dick Cheney’s, but he’s a black man in America.

And now that he’s president I find it funny how many people are trying to claim him. I find it interesting how many times I’m hearing about his white heritage — as some sort of, “See he’s not so bad…his mother is white!”

I’ll say it again. Barack Obama is black. Sorry, but you can’t have him now that he’s president. You can have Clarence Thomas as a consolation prize.

We all have a black president. Accept it. Embrace it.” (more from “Who’s Black Now? Significance of One Drop“)

Michael Jackson addressed this whole “Black or White” thing years ago. Y’all better recognize (LOL)!