Barack Obama: a "white mother and an African-American father"

[DemGa]

I though Barack Obama's father was Kenyan?

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Oh, you know, I would say that it has been a distraction from the core message of our campaign. I think that part of what has always been the essence of my politics -- not just this campaign, but my life -- is the idea that we've got to bring people together.

Now, part of that is biographical, as somebody who comes from a diverse background, with a white mother and an African-American father, growing up in Hawaii and Asia. You know, it's in my DNA to believe that all of us have something fundamental in common, and that's part of what makes America so special.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house/jan-june08/obama_03-17.html


Ed. This thread is a response to the nit-picking over Hillary's Bosnian trip found here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5203159

[redstate_democrat]

1. Obviously he is

He misspoke. He's been doing that a lot lately. He needs a good long nap. He seems tired.

[anonymous171]

2. So he's not American enough now?

[jgraz]

13. Naw, it's just confusing his hate-o-meter

Should he hate him cuz he's a negro or should he hate him cuz he's an eye-legal immugrunt? Rednecks need to know these things -- they don't do nuance.

[Mooney]

3. That FUCKER!!!!!

I am now a Hillary Clinton supporter.

[FrenchieCat]

Hey.....

you forgot this -------> :sarcasm:

[Mooney]

12. It's more fun without it. n/t

[jgraz]

15. Sadly, given posters like the OP, you really really need it

[Mooney]

18. Fuck 'em.

Let them get a headache trying to figure it out.

[jgraz]

20. .

Thought better of it

[ericgtr]

8. LOL

:rofl:

[FrenchieCat]

4. Probably because he himself is literally an African-American.....

But thanks for the correction. I'll let him know.

[JeffR]

11. self-delete

Keep on keepin' on, Frenchie.

[desi]

5. Did he become an American citizen when they married?

Does anybody know?

[ThatBozGuy]

16. Ask someone who looked in his passporrt........Hes American and has been his whole life.....

[soothsayer]

30. i think desi meant dad, not Obama

[JeffR]

6. self-delete

because Southerners are supposed to be more polite than I was here.

[DemGa]

10. Nice post -- you can bet the feeling is mutual --- NT

[JeffR]

19. self-delete

My parents taught me better than to say what I said here.

[DemGa]

27. You've "reinforced those stereotypes" quite well by yourself ---NT

[JeffR]

29. self-delete

because Southerners are supposed to have manners.

[DemGa]

31. You know nothing about me -- I've said nothing intolerant of any race

Yes, I've called Obama a fraud -- I believe him to be one. You seem quick to judgment -- believe it, I've seen plenty like you in Ga.

[JeffR]

37. Know what? I'm going to delete my posts implying you're a racist.

Because as you point out, I don't directly know anything about you. As someone who was raised to be a Southern gentleman, I give you my apologies.

What I'll let stand is my opinion that you're either not a Democrat or not much of one.

[woolldog]

40. you shouldn't have deleted your posts.

I get the same impression from that guy, and I've had that impression for a while. I have a good ear for that kind of thing.

[JeffR]

42. I flatter myself that I do too

but my parents raised me to not to talk the way I did, and in their memory I retract what I wrote. For now, at least. And I hope they'd approve of that qualifier.

[jgraz]

36. Wow, two Rubber/Glue responses in a row. Nicely done.

Next you should tell Jeff he has girl cooties.

[JeffR]

38. Hey, I just might.

Anyway, I pulled my comments. Traditionally, Southerners don't engage in the kind of nastiness and innuendo I have in this thread, and it makes me feel cheap, even in my cups.

I reserve the right, however, to believe that the OP is - at minimum - a charlatan, a troll and no gentleman. Long live James Oglethorpe!

[jgraz]

39. Well, I'm a Sicilian from the West Side of Chicago

Where I come from, a gentleman is someone who stops kicking you once you've lost consciousness.

[JeffR]

41. I'd say that's pretty polite.

Perhaps far more polite than the OP deserves.

[DemGa]

48. Self-delete

I won't be a part of this negative energy.

[jgraz]

49. Leaving so soon?

Here, let me give you a ride.

[JeffR]

50. "Southern gentleman my ass" indeed.

I apologized to you publicly and deleted the content of 4 posts after deciding I'd crossed a line I shouldn't have crossed. You greeted that apology with this graceless spew.

Now it's on, son.

My first impulse - that you were a racist - might or might not have have been incorrect. But I can at least say with assurance that you are a pup, a phony, a fraud and a blowhard. You are insincere, oafish, crude, unevolved, spiteful, nasty and bitter. I'd further hazard a guess that your ancestors cheered Sherman as he burned a swath through Georgia, or that you're not a Southerner at all, because even the bigots in Georgia have better manners than you, at least outside of the trashiest neighborhoods.

Far from not being "aligned" with nastiness, you exemplify it in your online persona. I wish you and the ghost of Lester Maddox well during the Obama presidency, when a real Reconstruction - not just below the Mason-Dixon line but all across America - is undertaken, leaving you and your ilk to fend for yourselves in the wilderness of your backwardness. Take care, now.

on edit: The post this was in response to was self-deleted. This one will stand unless the mods want to delete it, because I won't.

[better tomorrow]

46. thanks, Jeff, that was a little over the edge....

glad they let you stay...

self control, self control, self control

[cigsandcoffee]

7. A problem I have with that term....

...is that it's meant to represent black folks in the US, but also directly applies to any white African that emigrated to the United States. It just isn't an accurate racial description.

[better tomorrow]

9. ?

From Wiki....

African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.<5> In the United States the term is generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry. Most African Americans are the descendants of captive Africans who survived the slavery era within the boundaries of the present United States, although some are — or are descended from — voluntary immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean, South America, or elsewhere.<6> Black Americans make up the single largest racial minority in the United States<7>, though Hispanics comprise the largest ethnic minority.

Wiki 2....

The Republic of Kenya is a country in Eastern Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest, with the Indian Ocean running along the southeast border.

[kwenu]

14. You've clearly GOT him there. His father is an "African national" and this thread is pathetic.

[Blondiegrrl]

17. Kenyan who lived in U.S. = African-American.

Charlize Theron also is African-American, as is Teresa Heinz Kerry. :evilgrin:

[JeffR]

22. Good point, but wasted on the OP, I suspect

[tammywammy]

21. Well, now I can obviously never vote for Obama

Oops, already did. :evilgrin:

[JeffR]

25. Well, you just take that there vote back now, Tammy

He ain't nothin' but a uppity Negro, that Obama.

The OP told me so - just not in so many words.

[tammywammy]

28. Sorry I go to the senate district Convention next Saturday

And....I'm voting for Obama again!

[JeffR]

34. Repent! Repent!

Noooooooooooooooooo...

[better tomorrow]

51. delete, delete....yes

[JeffR]

52. Should have.

Couldn't quite do so.

[Bonobo]

23. CALL YOUR SENATORS NOW!!!!!!

Obama lied to us! He is unfit to be president!

I am outraged. His pattern of deceit is sickening!!!

:sarcasm:
(for the incredibly dense)

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

24. Yep, it's all a big lie. Obama's father was really Swedish.

[BeyondGeography]

26. Obama is dead to me now

[ecstatic]

32. It was a mistake. "African American" is often used in place of "black"

He's spent the past week, not being able to talk about issues, but addressing petty race baiters like you. The man is exhausted.

[DemGa]

33. I'm fairly sure it was a mistake

Hillary would be called a liar for something similar. I've been called all manner of foul things for posting it.

[ecstatic]

35. Well there is a difference between misspeaking and grossly exaggerating

I apologize for calling you a name. It's been a long week.

[jgraz]

43. Y'know, I finally figured out what your post reminded me of

It was the last bar fight I was ever in. We were playing a gig at a popular college hangout at UW-Madison. We were on a break, and I was chatting with my drummer, who is black, and his girlfriend, who is Korean.

A group of good-ol farm boys from the Ag School walk up to us and say, "There's somethin we can't figger out, boy. If you and her have babies, are they gonna be ni**ers or are they gonna be g**ks?"

That was in 1988.

I don't give a fuck where Obama's father was from. The first time a lit cab passed him by on the South Side, he was a black man in America.

[JeffR]

47. "The first time a lit cab passed him by on the South Side, he was a black man in America."

That nails what a lot of white people still can't even begin to grasp about race in the Year of Our Lord 2008.

[GoldieAZ49]

53. awwwwwww

[JeffR]

54. What's wrong, Goldie? Don't you know any African Americans?

They could tell you lots of stories. And if you listened to them carefully, even as a white person, you might get a shiver up your spine. If you don't, then you don't know much.

[GoldieAZ49]

55. I have heard some of the stories

and if getting passed by a cab in a high crime neighborhood constitutes racism that gives you a shiver up your spine you can't handle the truth.

That damn sure doesn't mean constitute 'being black in America, it is in fact an insult. If that was it, there wouldn't be anything to be angry about.

[jgraz]

56. Wow, you really are a great big pile of not getting it

First off, I was talking about a black man being ignored by a cab. Where did I say high-crime neighborhood? Why did you immediately think "high-crime" when I said "black"?

Allow me to give you a few whacks with the clue stick: Cabs in Chicago don't even go into so-called high-crime neighborhoods. And black people don't have to be in so called high-crime (read: black) neighborhoods for cabs to pass them by. I've seen it happen in River North after a late dinner, or coming out of a show at the Steppenwolf.

It's just one of the many daily reminders that, still, so many people in this country can't see past skin color. And it's just one of the many reminders that black people get that they are, still, second-class citizens in this country.

[boston bean]

57. I don't think that today in the Year of Our Lord 2008 that most cabbies are white. nt

[jgraz]

59. What the hell does that have to do with anything?

Do you think an arab or persian or hindi cabbie is MORE likely to pick up a black man? :crazy:

[wileedog]

44. Uh

"Ed. This thread is a response to the nit-picking over Hillary's Bosnian trip found here:"

You mean the other thread you looked like a complete fool?

[jgraz]

45. The thread where he looked like a complete fool

Uh...you're gonna have to narrow that down for me, Chief.

[npincus]

58. this has GOT to stop...

he is probably our nominee. Are you working for that senile old man who threatens America with imaginary al Qaeda training in Iran? You want that old coot's finger on the nuclear button?

Keep tearing down our probable candidate with PURE BULLSHIT.