Reply #64: Ok, I have no argument against the notion that "ALL African Americans are MUTTS!'... [View All]

[LooseWilly]

I confess, I was thinking in terms of the outcry from the black community, or at least that which was being echoed by pundits, that Obama "wasn't black enough".

The fact that that "argument" wasn't greeted solely with an echo of laughter led me to conclude that there is indeed a portion of the "black community" that feels justified in judging whether or not a person is "black enough", which I presume is a judgement on connection to the "black community". -yes?

This segment of the "black community", which feels comfortable judging whether or not a person is "black enough", is who I was thinking of when speaking of "uniracial" black folk... in that it seems to me that they must at least consider themselves "black" to the exclusion of "other ethnicities" in order to feel justified in sitting in judgement of the "blackness" of others. Am I wrong to presume a self-identification to the point of "uniracial" on the part of those who would sit thusly in judgement?

While I'm asking, do you believe that there WAS really a portion of the "black community" that questioned Obama's "blackness" in the beginning of the primaries? (Or was that really just a reflection of media confusion when faced with a black candidate that they had to take seriously?)

If there was such a segment (a segment which questioned Obama's "blackness"), were some portion of the members of that segment actually people who self-identified as "MUTTS"? If so, is there no ironic dissonance that comes with such a judgement?

Or was this phenomenon (the questioning of Obama's "blackness", presuming that it actually occurred at all) some permutation of the tension that I've long seen in Oakland between the African American community, and the African cab drivers- but writ large across the country? (As a reflection of Obama's father being from Kenya, rather than an African American community within the US...)