The latest smear the right-wingers are pushing is that Obama is dishonestly claiming to be black when in fact he is Arab:
http://mediamatters.org/...
The evidence? His father is from the Arab part of Africa, and most of the people on his father's side of the family have Arab names. From this they've concluded that Obama is 50% white, 44% Arab, and only 6% black.
This is absurd on so many levels.
More below:
Firsty of all, Obama's father is from Kenya, and the last time I checked Kenya is in sub-Saharan Africa which is decidedly the black part of Africa. While it's true that some East Africans, especially those in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia in particular) have 40% Arab DNA, I have never seen such high figures reported for Kenya. In any event, for Obama to be 44% Arab, his father would need to be 88% Arab, and anyone who has seen a picture of Obama's dad knows he's not 88% Arab. If anything, judging from skin color Obama's dad looks as close to a 100% pure black African as anyone I have ever seen. You can't infer anything about Obama's father's DNA from how many peope on his side of the family have an Arab name (assuming they're correct about even that). All it takes is just one distant Arab ancestor (or not even an ancestor but a slave owner) and the entire family will have Arab names for generations to come. It amazes that such incoherent nonsense can gain traction.