*DISCLOSURE: I. AM. BLACK.
It’s been an issue from the very beginning. From the second Senator Barack Obama stepped on the national scene, and I’m sure since well before, the questions of Obama’s race have come. Today, they abound and thrive.
I am bringing up this much ballyhooed subject now for several reasons. First, the "is he black enough" question is foolish as well as small. Second, Robert Novak, the pontificating prick of the right wing, on Sunday’s white-boy-a-thon, also known as Meet the Press, commented that the GOP has little to be giddy over, that is, except for the possibility that the Democratic Party might nominate a Black man or a White woman for the highest office in the land. The implication is obvious; America is too narrow-minded and bigoted to make a woman, or an African American its leader. I do not believe that is true today. Of course, it has been true for most of American history.
In the paragraphs to follow, I will attempt to lay out my understanding of Obama’s race, as well as race in general, and particularly race in America, from an historic and contemporary prospective.
Read More