Barack Obama is not black!

[Stramash]

No worries my friend. Just make sure that you try and find 10 friends who dont normall vote and drag them to the booths election day!!

[petey]

It is going to be a stressful few months! LOL

[KingSpartan78]

isnt it always?

[eagle]

Rebublican wind up or just naive maybe :?:

[Niranahm]

I am fervent supporter of Obama, don't care about his race, but do understand the significance of a black person being the Democratic nominee in the US...

But from an external, non American viewpoint it's strange that he's referred to as Black and not mixed race.

To me, living outside the States, as a non-American the concept of calling anyone with significant African-American blood as black seems an anachronism.

[eagle]

I am fervent supporter of Obama, don't care about his race, but do understand the significance of a black person being the Democratic nominee in the US...

But from an external, non American viewpoint it's strange that he's referred to as Black and not mixed race.

To me, living outside the States, as a non-American the concept of calling anyone with significant African-American blood as black seems an anachronism.

The acceptance of any black is still happening in america and if you look black you are black and if you look white and some find out you are black you are black. He is mixed race but the black issue makes him black in america.

[literature]

When I call someone is black, it just is in the term of that person's outside looks (skin tone) , not in the term of being anachronism or racisim even though I know his or her blood is not 100% black and he was born and has grown up in USA .

[petey]

I am fervent supporter of Obama, don't care about his race, but do understand the significance of a black person being the Democratic nominee in the US...

But from an external, non American viewpoint it's strange that he's referred to as Black and not mixed race.

To me, living outside the States, as a non-American the concept of calling anyone with significant African-American blood as black seems an anachronism.

The acceptance of any black is still happening in america and if you look black you are black and if you look white and some find out you are black you are black. He is mixed race but the black issue makes him black in america.

Thank you Eagle. That is the point exactly. Well said.

[richar1]

true with what a lot of TF's posted.i had deployed to kenya back inthe 1980's.i had a guy in my section that was bi-racial. the people in kenya did not consider him black,but white ! the reverse of the one drop rule in the u.s.a you cannot go by skin color any more.I live in hawaii where of all the states people are more racially mixed across asian ,caucasian,spanish( puerto-rican,mexicans,spainards), portugese. We need to get away from such arbitrary classifications they have no place in this new century.

[steevolution]

the United States of America was built upon a racist foundation. racism, taking the land from the indigenous people and building the wealth of the country with slave labor, is what made America great. racism runs down and is intertwined with the roots of America. and like a root virus on a computer, it is tough to deal with and even tougher to get rid of.

when you mess with a building's foundation there is always the risk that the building comes tumbling down. dirty and dangerous work... but it is work that Barak Obama is uniquely qualified and equipped to do... and it needs to be done if the USA is to avoid being left behind as the rest of the world progresses.

How can i say the good ol US of A was built on racism? the "Three-Fifths compromise" was written into the original Constitution. it is what allowed the fabled, much venerated, worshipped original Constitution to come into being. the people counted as three-fifths of a person, the slaves, were counted that way because they all had some portion of African blood in them.

from Wikipedia:

The Three-Fifths Compromise was a compromise between Southern and Northern states reached during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in which three-fifths of the population of slaves would be counted for enumeration purposes regarding both the distribution of taxes and the apportionment of the members of the United States House of Representatives. It was proposed by delegates James Wilson and Roger Sherman.

Delegates opposed to slavery generally wished to count only the free inhabitants of each state. Delegates supportive of slavery, on the other hand, generally wanted to count slaves at their actual numbers. Since slaves could not vote, slaveholders would thus have the benefit of increased representation in the House and the Electoral College; taxation was only a secondary issue. The final compromise of counting "all other persons" as only three-fifths of their actual numbers reduced the power of the slave states relative to the original southern proposals, but is still generally credited with giving the pro-slavery forces disproportionate political power in the U.S. government from the establishment of the Constitution until the Civil War. For example, in the period prior to 1850, southerners held the Presidency for 50 of 62 years, and 18 of the 31 Supreme Court Justices were southerners despite the north having nearly twice the population by 1850.

The three-fifths compromise is found in Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 of the United States Constitution:

"Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons."

me, i'm of African origin too. and so are you, if you're smart enough to realize it (even the grublike pale guys from the backward borderlands between England and Scotland). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_origin

[zeusbheld]

way too long to actually read but yeah the 3/5 compromise is real.

a real fact on TF???

the fundamental laws of the universe have been destroyed. sheeeeeit next thing you know robinho will sign for manchester city.

[zeusbheld]

as US history goes... don't forget the mexican-american war, which was a naked imperialist land grab, and basically an effort to create more slave-holding states.

[eagle]

I agree the US has a long history of racism and slavery and i will add Man on earth has been living that way from as long as history is written. Might not be black and white might be irish english or asian african . Its a people thing which we are still trying to accept and deal with.

[GoldMember]

Either way.....we're gonna either have the first (5-95%...whatever) black president or the first female (& considering her age- really quite shagable) VP.That is indisputably historic.

[GoldMember]

She looks a bit like Tony Soprano's quack.Havent heard her talk yet though.Husky will be a real vote winner.Husky eskimo.....gets even better.I can feel a campaign theme a' comin

[biachung]

Just a thought, say obama wins, palin might run for president next election, and hilary too.

btw he's not black, he's light black.

[CocoaBrotha]

Just a thought, say obama wins, palin might run for president next election, and hilary too.

btw he's not black, he's light black.

But let's just suppose McCain becomes the new prez and has errr... I don't know a Heart attack?. Would Palin be ready to take over the most powerful office in the world?. This is a woman with only 10 months experience being the guv of Alaska. By the way?, She's a definte MILF!

[eagle]

Just a thought, say obama wins, palin might run for president next election, and hilary too.

btw he's not black, he's light black.

But let's just suppose McCain becomes the new prez and has errr... I don't know a Heart attack?. Would Palin be ready to take over the most powerful office in the world?. This is a woman with only 10 months experience being the guv of Alaska. By the way?, She's a definte MILF!

I saw Palin shooting an M16 with some good ol boys, a member of the NRA she is. Doesn't think the Polar Bears need protection and she wants to drill Alaska up for Oil. She is anti abortion and they are insisting she is very experienced yes she is experienced she can do it yes she can tough woman can do can do can do can do shheeeeeezus :shock:

[zeusbheld]

Just a thought, say obama wins, palin might run for president next election, and hilary too.

btw he's not black, he's light black.

But let's just suppose McCain becomes the new prez and has errr... I don't know a Heart attack?. Would Palin be ready to take over the most powerful office in the world?. This is a woman with only 10 months experience being the guv of Alaska. By the way?, She's a definte MILF!

alaska is a state with under 700,000 people... that's smaller than Obama's campaign. :shock:

[AComes2Siam]

He's a ÅÙ¡¤ÃÖè§

Half black, half white. Half American, Half "foreigner"

Isn't time we stopped calling people who are 50% black 25% black as "black" or "African-American"? (actually that term makes sense, for once, for him)

I know the historical reasons, but it's not logical or fair to other races. Does it help the cause of equality for non-white people? I doubt it -- it reinforces silly notions of white "purity". I don't buy that it shows pride in part of your ancestry -- not unless one shouldn't be equally proud of being white.

My son is half Irish, half Thai. I think I'd get strange looks if I went around demanding that he is referred to as white or "farang" because he is half white (he looks 80% Thai in fact).

Another downside of this "half white"-is-still-black idea is that it reinforces stereotypes of beauty and color.

Beyonce is supposed to be an example of a beautiful black woman. Except that she's only half black, and it's largely her non-black features that makes her an "acceptable" model of beauty. It's as silly as having all these ÅÙ¡¤ÃÖè§ actors on Thai TV representing a model of Thai beauty.

I agree. How can you not.

The idea that one drop of black blood meant that you were stained forever and forever an outcast actually comes from old white supremacy circles.I agree that this idea doesn't make much sense today. It was said to be like that to keep the white race free from black influence. Interestingly enough there was never any such reservations about mixing white with asian blood.

'One drop' refers to black blood and you are black if you have one drop of black blood in you.

[Greggo]

My contribution to this thread:

http://www.break.com/index/a-moment-for-the-history-books1.html