Is Obama “African-American?”
February 17, 2008 by Joecephus
I’m not a big fan of “Hyphenated Americans” as a matter of fact I would have to agree with Teddy Roosevelt who said, “There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.” I myself am a child of immigrants, both of my parents originated form Croatia and both of them are now naturalized American citizens. I am and always will be proud of my Croatian heritage, but I am first and foremost an American.
I personally find the practice of putting another word before the fact that you are American to be most offensive. It is a slap in the face to this great country that I love, because it gives the impression that one’s allegiances lay first with whichever nationality or ethnicity is placed before the “American.” Why do we have to be African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans or any other type of Hyphenated American you can think of? All it does is reinforce ethnic, racial and social rifts in this country — If you are an American citizen you should just be an American.
The leads me to the man whom most very well likely will be the Democratic Party’s nominee for the office of President — Barack Hussein Obama Jr. I use Senator Obama’s full name here not in an effort to drum up hatred or paranoia, but just to point out that much of the hoopla surrounding the candidacy of the Illinois Senator is the potential of him becoming the first African-American President. The problem with this is that if he were to win the Presidency he would not in fact be the first “African-American” President and saying so would just further serve to reinforce ethnic, racial and social rifts in this country.
Now I cannot exactly call myself an authority on the term “African-American,” but I know for a fact I am not lying when I say there is great confusion and much debate over what exactly the term means. Does it mean that someone who was born in Africa but is now an American citizen is an African-American? If so, then Teresa Heinz Kerry and my blogging friend Patrick Conlon are then “African-Americans.” Does it mean that to be an “African American,” you must be a descendent of slaves? If that was the case then Barack Obama would not fit this definition. Is “African American,” a blanket term for anybody who appears to be black regardless of nationality, such as was actually inferred by former CNN reporter Carol Lin, who called two French citizens of Tunisian origin, “African Americans.” [click here for a transcript]
For Senator Obama, the latter term seems to be the one which test he passes. He is an American — born in Hawaii, which last I checked was part of the United States. I bring this issue up much of, not all but a considerable amount of, the hype surrounding Senator Obama’s campaign is that fact that he has the potential of becoming the first “African-American” President. I bring this up because Senator Obama and particularly his supporters make it an issue. How often have we heard the fact that he was the first “African-American” President of the Harvard Law Review.
Whatever happened to Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream of all men and women being judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin? Call me a racist if you want, but I just believe that until society stops getting wrapped up in these ideas of “whose the first whatever of whatever race” we will still be a long way off from achieving Dr. Kings dream. I just think that if Obama was truly the candidate of “Hope,” and “Change” he would not make an issue of his race.
But then again, according to this report by one, Kenneth E. Lamb — Senator Obama may not even “legally” be black.
Federal law requires that to claim a minority status, you must be at least 1/8 of the descriptor, but for the sake of this article, I’ve converted it to a decimal fraction for easier comprehension. You must be at least 12.5% of the racial component you claim for minority status. Mr. Obama, claiming to be African-American, is half the legal threshold.
Again, to let it sink in: Mr. Obama is not legally African-American. It is impossible for him to be, in truth, America’s first African-American president.
Yet claiming to be African-American is the soul and substance of his claim to fame. It is what he has used throughout his adult life to distinguish himself from other competitors. It is the ethnic identity he proclaims, and it is the ethnic identity he craves. Without it, he is just another mixed race Caucasian Arab with an African influence playing on his skin’s pigmentation.
But no matter what he craves, no matter what he has used to propel himself through life, no matter the racist presumption of seeing his skin and without question calling him black, the hard, cold, genetically inarguable reality remains: he is not an African-American.
Mr. Obama is 50% Caucasian, that from his mother. What those who want Mr. Obama to write history by becoming “America’s first African-American president” ignore is that his father was ethnically Arabic, with only 1 relative ethnically African Negro – a maternal great-grandparent (Sen. Obama’s great-great grandparent, thus the 6.25% ethnic contribution to the senator’s ethnic composition.).
That means that Mr. Obama is 50% Caucasian from his mother’s side. He is 43.75% Arabic, and 6.25% African Negro from his father’s side.
The above quoted article also goes on to talk about Senator Obama’s full name, Barrack Hussein Obama Jr.,
The question no one wants to answer – particularly Mr. Obama and his supporters, is, “Why do you think he has an Arabic name? Why does his father have an Arabic name? Why does every ancestor on his father’s side have an Arabic name?”
The answer is obvious: They have Arabic names because his father’s side of the family tree is Arabic.
…
True Negro tribal members of western Kenya where his father was born have Christian names, not Arabic. His father’s decision to name him with an Arabic name is a matter of his father establishing his ethnic identity in Africa – it is done deliberately to separate him from the African tribes. He may live among them, but he is not one of them. His father’s message is that he is Arabic, not Negro.
Many will find these truths unsettling. I’m often asked, “But I thought his father was Kenyan. How could Mr. Obama not be African-American, how could his ethnic composition be so Arabic?”
The definitive clue to that answer is to look at his name, his father’s name, and the names of all his ancestors on his father’s side. They are all Arabic.
Researching his roots reveal that on his father’s side, he is descended from Arab slave traders. They operated under an extended grant from Queen Victoria, who gave them the right to continue the slave trade in exchange for helping the British defeat the Madhi Army in southern Sudan and the Upper Nile region. Funny how circular is history; now the British again face the Madhi Army, albeit this time Shiite, not Sunni, as in nineteenth century Sudan.
Now I’m not going to vote for Obama, not because of the color of his skin, not because of his middle name, not because of the potential that he is hiding the fact that he is more Arabic then Black, not even because of the fact that his admitted spiritual advisor preaches a radicalized version of race centered Christianity. I’m not going to vote for Barrack Obama because I do not agree with his socialist-leaning extreme liberal political views. I’m just pointing out this aspect of Senator Obama’s race — because his campaign has made race an issue in this election.
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Great job, Joe. And yet they say the conservatives are the racists yet we are the ones that attempt at our best to put skin color behind us. I feel Obama is much more arabic than he let’s on based on his lack of understanding of the Christian faith. He almost seems to have a deep hatred for it in my opinion when I listen to him talk about it.
CoryMichael’s last blog post..A Lesson in Greed
Obama’s father was a Black Muslim(most Muslims are non white, non Arab). Arabs are Semitic Whites.Not all Arabs are Muslems. To the racists, Obama has NO ARAB blood in him. Being his mothe is White and IF his father was Arab(he was NOT), Obama would be White-no Black blood in him.