This may fall on deaf ears but maybe by divine intervention this will catch on. In my opinon the best way to slow down all of this black versus white talk would be to shed light on the fact that Barack Obama probably knows as much about being white as most white people.
In fact I would go so far as to argue that it is highly probable that for most of his life he felt most comfortable around white people. That being said the Senator from Illinois and myself have one major thing in common. We both have white mothers and were temporarily raised by non-biological fathers. There are some generational differences being that he is about 15 years older than I am but I do not believe that creates a large enough gap that I can't offer some perspective into who he is.
I apologize in advance for grammatical errors and non-sensical statements.
The number of bi-racial, multi-racial, mixed, ethnically diverse, insert label here _____ human beings born in America has greatly increased since even I came into the world and there were far more that had been born before me than I could have ever imagined. Barack's challenge has been his specific make up and the fact that he is an American.
Being born to a white mother and a black father creates its own challenges. Such as learing your history and your place in it, when your early educational childhood is basically a concrete black and white world it is hard to put yourself into either group, which is what most people intentionally or not demand of you, when your natural feeling is to simply exist in a state of comfort. To some bi-racial children the most difficult thing they can do is to choose on group over the other. It is not what our society demands but one can only walk uphill for so long.
Barack Obama has stated that he identifies himself as an African American which is completely acceptable and reasonable considering his appearance his family and surrounding community. I would argue that for the first years of his life and up until he moved to Chicago without that brown skin of his would have mirrored the average white person.
If you happen to be a white person imagine attending Howard University or some other HBCU and rising to the top of your class and not only accepting but being elected by your peers for one of this particular schools highest leadership positions that carries a national significance. Do you think that you would be able to do that without developing a natural connection with that student body? Surly there were other black law students that came before Barack Obama, just as talented, articulate, and intelligent.
What advantages did Barack have that those other students did not? It was a natural connection to white people that cannot be faked or learned. I also consider myself to be an African American although I am closer to a Canadian American than anything. In my life I have gone back and forth from black to white to black to white and over and over trying to put myself in one place or the other until I finally realized that even if I consider myself to be African American I am so much more than that and being lumped into one group for the comfort of others is just not possible or realistic.
So I would challenge people to think about that, to think about Barack Obama's white mom and the type of connection he had with her. Think about his white grandparents who were ther for him and the type of connection that he has with them. Think about how he spent just has much time living amongst white people as he has black people.
While the media and everyone else focuses on the fact that he is being painted as the black candidate they are ignoring that he is the white candidate as well. I don't even know if this makes any sense but I think it is shameful that we don't hear anything about his mom or his grandparents and the great things that white people have done for him in his life. I love black people with all my heart but you better believe I feel the exact same way about white people and every other shade that you can think of. I think the media and us as Americans and humans are doing him a great disservice to ignore the reality that he is the melting pot, he is what some of America is becoming.