Coffee Cup Half Moons

Given that I’ve finally got the forum to publicly mention the point, does anyone else find it somewhat ironic that the first “African American” President of the United States is half white?

Frankly, I couldn’t care less about race.  I may have racist tendencies, but they are unintentional, and I make an effort to extend my philosophies beyond them when I notice them.  That being said, why is it that the offspring of a white parent and a black parent is considered black?

Calling Barack Obama the first “African American” or “black” President is just a testament to how far we have NOT come as a country and as a society.  We see the offspring of a white parent and a black parent as black.  We don’t see that offspring as white — evidently black alters white and not the other way around.

So, I say Barack Obama is the 44th white President as much as he is the 1st black, and that is an absolute fact.  One may point out that he DOES actually look different.  Clearly, his skin is a different color than a white person’s.  It’s natural to notice the difference.

Ok fine, so he IS the first black President.  He obviously looks different than the previous Presidents.  Then again, as it turns out, Bill Clinton looks strikingly different from Harry Truman and Benjamin Harrison, and I’ve never read about how Abraham Lincoln liberated the world by being the tallest US President elected.

Someone who isn’t racist would see something amazing in Barack Obama’s skin color no sooner than in Ronald Reagan’s ears.  Genetics, ethnicity, appearance:  these should ideally be a footnote to the perspective of the individual.

It is without question a great step for a black American to become President given the level of open, blatant racism that existed even 40 years ago.  That being said, we’re still considering Barack Obama black even though he’s technically genetically half black.  We’re not considering him white, although we could do so just as accurately.  In this case, would we still proclaim a social victory?

Summary:  Obama’s skin color alone means nothing, so it’s his achievement as a black American that is noteworthy, but he is only a black American because we’re racist enough to call him black and not white.  Ultimately, from this author’s point of view, a person’s race is nothing more than a feature, but as a society we still give weight to it beyond other physical attributes.  That still makes us racist.

Someday, ideally, we will elect a <insert_distinct_minority_here> President and barely care about the adjectives.  It will be then that we will have truly overcome such bigotry.