The Nation: For Birthers, Obama's Not Black Enough

[marmar]

For Birthers, Obama's Not Black Enough

Melissa Harris-Perry
April 27, 2011


Remember when the media regularly asked if Barack Obama was “black enough” to get the support of African-Americans? In 2007 pundits wondered if a black-identified but technically biracial candidate who came of age in the post–civil rights era, was raised far from traditional African-American communities, was educated in the Ivy League and boasted a foreign name might be more palatable to white voters than black ones. Today this query seems hopelessly naïve and endearingly optimistic about the fluidity of American racial identities. After the secret-Muslim accusations, the witch doctor posters, the “You lie!” shout-down and the chimpanzee e-mails—it is clear that President Obama is certainly “black enough” to experience both racially motivated public attacks and exceptional support among racial minorities.

But the tenacity of the birther movement has revived the issue of Obama’s blackness for me. Nearly a quarter of Americans, most of them white, believe President Obama was not born in the United States. The resilience of the birther myth—lately given air by Donald Trump—has even forced the White House to post a copy of Obama’s birth certificate online in hopes of settling the matter once and for all. Good luck—this controversy isn’t about documentation; it’s about deeply held beliefs, even faith claims, about who is and is not a legitimate citizen.

Many on the left say that birtherism is just racism, but there’s more than simple racial animus behind it. I suspect that part of the problem is that Obama is indeed not black enough; specifically, the president is not sufficiently Negro—the historical variation of blackness that is uniquely and indisputably American.

The American slave system disrupted the ability of enslaved Africans to retain or pass along their ethnic identities. Igbo, Ashanti, Akan, Yoruba and Hausa became interchangeable units for sale. While slaves nurtured fragments of cultural, religious and familial traditions, much of the specificity of their African experience was surrendered to an imagined and indistinct notion of “Africa.” Moreover, the law did not initially recognize slaves or their US-born children as American. So enslaved Africans were women and men literally without a country, defined solely in terms of their labor value. Their descendants eventually achieved citizenship, but to be an American black, a Negro, is to be a rejected child who nonetheless clings to her abusive father because she knows no other parent. To be a black American descended from slaves is to lack, if not a birth certificate, then at least a known genealogy—to have only a vague sense of where one comes from, of who one’s ancestors were and of where one belongs. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/article/160233/birthers-obamas-not-black-enough

[winston65]

1. Spot on

where I live the bigots reserve a special hatred for mixed race blacks. The fact that he is half white makes him a much larger target. His half blackness only highlights that his lily white mother actually had sex with a black man. He automatically get three strikes just for having a white mother. It's amazing how many white women are still scared witless by black men. And white men still take seriously protecting the 'flower of white womanhood' from the grunting black ape man. Don't kid yourself, this thinking is more widespread than you think. Still I get a chuckle when I see Bubba Grandpa leading a little half white grandchild around.

[Froward69]

2. A frend of mine is a former Bigot

he thought along those lines too. His eldest Daughter now has three children... from three different fathers. the first is Half white and half Ute Indian. the second is white white... the youngest is half black. he Undertook a remarkable transformation just these past two years. that is he Just cant not love his youngest Grandchild. he even tried to stay bigoted and failed. I am glad to report he is much happier, with his heart and mind filled with love rather than hate. (he may even Vote for Obama this next time around)

[WingDinger]

3. The same can be said for AMERICA. 200+ years. Tea Party being one of our first POPULAR

memories. We feel very socially inadequate. We LACK a king or queen, so we encrown our own. The Kardashians being the latest inadequacy proof. So, we look with envy upon those royals hogging all the good fashionista press.

We all suffer from scant historical depth. And in many instances, dont know past our grandfather. The mobility of the nukular family killing off any latent feeling of belonging.

Death of a feeling of community has been as responsible as anything for our squandering of all our natural heritage,or at least the one we stole from those that were red enough.