He’s neither a black American nor a white American. Obama is of mixed race. There’s no word for his actual race. From Wiki; “If sufficiently different, two or more races can be identified as subspecies, which is an official biological taxonomy unit subordinate to species. If not, they are denoted as races, which means that a formal rank should not be given to the group, or taxonomists are unsure whether or not a formal rank should be given.” Sounds like doubletalk. Says one thing while talking about something different. Official or unofficial race-based constructs are used worldwide and they cause problems worldwide even though the race is called the human race. Working against the color blind theory is the forensic use of race. E.g.:”if races don’t exist, why are forensic anthropologists so good at identifying them?” (From Wiki; “Race).
The essential racial nature of Obama, however, is to divide along race types. Some Americans like to refer to America as a color-blind culture. Others differentiate by race, among other characteristics. In England forensic race identification identifies African-America as M1. The racial nature of Obama is useful to focus the race debates but not at all helpful in resolving any of them. Solutions are evasive for the problems of and for Obama and except for race are far more difficult. He is a divisive by his nature. He divided as a community agitator, pitting one group of Chicagoans against government in order to increase their share of tax money and other benefits without earning them. And there is the one reason Obama will continue to divide by race.
Obama also divides by money, e.g., rich/poor and by religion. Obama shares the characteristic of blindness to color-blindness by race, money and religion. He has a specific African region father Kenya. Many people cannot identify their ancestors. Obama can with precision. His mother was born in Wichita, Kansas. She was of predominantly English ancestry, with some German, Swiss, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh ancestry but that seems racially of less use than her being white. So Obama is Kenyan-American, as the English say, M1. He is either a Black White man or a White Black man. Racially there is no American race so Obama cannot be an African american by race. That’s a geographic termHe did not marry a color-blind mate. A key component in Michelle’s ancestors is the repeated references to slaves and slavery. Perhaps the pre-occupation with race in America’s presidency will prove beneficial but for the moment it’s become not only more divisive but more shrill and strident. It’s divided America. Obama seems destined to continue the divisions and delay the solutions.
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