'Mutts like me' - Obama shows ease discussing race

[onehandle]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON – It popped out casually, a throwaway line as he talked to reporters about finding the right puppy for his young daughters.

But with just three offhanded words in his first news conference as president-elect, Barack Obama reminded everyone how thoroughly different his administration — and inevitably, this country — will be.

"Mutts like me."

By now, almost everyone knows that Obama's mother was white and father was black, putting him on track to become the nation's first African-American president. But there was something startling, and telling, about hearing his self-description — particularly in how offhandedly he used it.

The message seemed clear — here is a president who will be quite at ease discussing race, a complex issue as unresolved as it is uncomfortable for many to talk about openly. And at a time when whites in the country are not many years from becoming the minority.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081108/ap_on_el_pr/mutts_like_me

[jcla]

1. We mutts are proud...

Hey! almost everyone in America is... How far back do we go to be pure breeds? How many generations... how many years... (500,000... 50,000... 5,000...500...50?) Categories have a starting and stopping point... reality doesn't. My son's favorite pin for St. Paddy's Day is "Kiss me, I'm Black Irish!" We are proud of our a little from column a... a little from column b.... a little from column c.... a little from column d.... et cetera. We are ethnically mixed and proud of all our people. Isn't inclusion better than exclusion? You know my answer and Barack's.

[nc4bo]

3. AA/NA/Scottish/Irish mutt here and hopeful that discussions of race in the U.S. will improve! nt

[XemaSab]

28. Scots-Irish/Swedish/German mutt here

You don't have to be from far-flung places to be a mutt. :P

[1monster]

7. Hear! Hear!

Isn't inclusion better than exclusion?

I tried to make a point like this a few days ago, but failed miserably and was burned to a crisp by flamethrowers.

I obviously didn't express it as succinctly as you have.

We're all mutts in this country. Racial and ethnic divisions could and should be eliminated without losing cultural customs/beliefs/character.

on edit: missed a "c" in succinctly :blush:

[Alcibiades]

18. There were few purebreeds

Even in ancient times. Historical and archaeological evidence demonstrate that there were many, many migrations of people, long before Rome, Carthage, Athens or even Egypt. And wherever folks have gone, intermarriage, or at least sex, has usually been common. Unless you are from isolated paleolithic tribe, it is unlikely you are purebred anything.

[bagrman]

32. The pure breeds seem to give us the most trouble, inbred and bad hips ya know.

[LynnTheDem]

2. If you're not Queen Elizabeth, we're ALL mutts!

An intelligent, thoughtful, caring President comfortable with who and what he is...

:wow:

[MrsBrady]

4. actually, the royal family is not "pure bred"

and the british monarchy is mostly germanic heritage.

[LynnTheDem]

6. I mean mutts as in not being able to trace our lineage back as far

as she can.

:)

[eowyn_of_rohan]

36. actually the farther back you trace it, the more muttley we are!

[Patiod]

5. Oh please, that woman is 1/2 German....

I do remember them testing DNA from some people in a small town in England - Stilton? - and him being closely related to one of the prehistoric graves. So maybe him.

[LeftishBrit]

13. Queen Elizabeth is quite a mutt herself

Mixed German and Danish ancestry. Her husband is from Greece.

[NOLALady]

25. More than German and Danish.

http://www.100greatblackbritons.com/bios/queen_charlotte.html



"Queen Charlotte Sophia

Consort of George III and Queen Victoria's grandmother


Queen Charlotte, wife of the English King George III (1738-1820), was directly descended from Margarita de Castro y Sousa, a black branch of the Portuguese Royal House"

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. Another great link...thank you.

Du'ers awareness of information is also diverse.

I learn something every day..

ok.every hour.....so I live in the forums, ok???:7

[PfcHammer]

30. That whole thing is a fraud. They're German with a name change

and lots of inbreeding.:eyes:

[IsItJustMe]

8. I call this, grabbing the bull by the horns. Good for Obama.

[goclark]

12. I love it --- Proud Mutt here

I enjoy searching census records for my ancestors and find that some are "Mulatto" and most are listed as "Black."

My family looks like a rainbow of colors and I'm delighted.

When I was growing up and walking in the downtown area with my grandfather(who was white as snow, straight hair and blue eyes)Whites would always stop us and say to him such as .....

"Is that your Maid's child?"


My grandfather would always stand up even straighter and say, " This is my beautiful grandchild, I am a Colored Man."

I loved him for that to this day.

He taught me so much about being Proud of who I am.

[IsItJustMe]

17. We should all celebrate in our differences while at the same time never letting those differences

divide us. We all have lessons to learn, but we are getting there.

[NOLALady]

22. You gotta love those census records.

Some ancestors are born white, years later they are MU, and they are B in their old age.

Others are born to FPOC, change back and forth between B and MU, then they are listed as W in their later years.

There's never a dull moment searching census records for those pesky ancestors.

[goclark]

31. Right you are ~ lots of Mutts

You were what the person that did the census said you were.

So --- Mutts of America Unite! :bounce:

[goclark]

47. right you are ~ I wish our ancestors could talk to us

and let us know the real truth LOL

[mod mom]

9. My pound pup are holding their heads a little higher these days knowing that mutts like them,

can aspire to be first pup.

Hats off to President Obama. I hope this will spread to the general population. We've had a long view that "pure breeds" actually meant limited gene pools.

[peacetalksforall]

10. If knowing your ancestry eases bigotry, let's do it. And if it eases, maybe it erases..

[NOLALady]

11. I come from a long line of proud mutts.

NA/AA/French and Germans pooled their DNA to get me here.

[yellowcanine]

14. Didn't someone once call the U.S. a "nation of mongrels"? I believe meant as an insult but

Americans should wear it with pride.

[yellowcanine]

16. Follow-up. I believe it was Hitler, when Germany declared war on U.S. in 1941.

[4lbs]

15. Aren't the only truly verifiable "purebreds" left in America the ones that are actually inbred?

:silly:

[treestar]

19. He's going to be able to do a lot on this issue

Since he is both black and white no one can carp at whatever he says about it.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

20. This is at least the third mutt thread

Hey moderator- how about combining them?

[Samurai_Writer]

21. Another proud mutt here!

My ancestors come from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and North America. Some in my family look European (blond, fair-skinned) and others are dark-haired and dark-skinned (like me). Same mother, same father. Looking back at old family photos, I can see my dark features in my paternal grandmother's family. I can see my sister's light features in my paternal grandfather's family.

[catrose]

23. German Swiss English Scotch Irish

Being so damned Anglo has always been a source of shame for me.

But mutt I am.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

27. English, Welsh, Swiss, German, Irish, Scot, with a touch of Francais.

And there are a few lines I haven't been able to trace back far enough to know for sure their nationalities. But i would be proud of my ancestors no matter what nationality they were. No need for anyone to be ashamed! We all have saints and sinners in our background.

(Hey - are you and I related? :)

[peruban]

40. In other words, a EuroAnglomutt.

No offense, I just can't resist the joke.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

46. Yesiree! and who knows-there may be something else in there

that I haven't found yet

[Wetzelbill]

24. another mutt in the house right here.

:)

[Porschenut1066]

26. Mutts. Isn't that what America really is one big melting pot of people

so I suggest that if people look back in their family history's (perhaps back to that one female in Africa 200,000 years ago that 90% of all humans are related to) we are all mutts.

Mutts for America!

I'm a mutt and I approve this message.

[GinaMaria]

33. I consider myself one!

[dixiegrrrrl]

34. The beauty of creationism is that pesky genetic fact doesn't exist.

Hmmm...maybe that is the reason for the emphasis on "cretinism".

[iamahaingttta]

35. I have just about the most Irish name imaginable...

This proud mutt has said it before, and I'll say it again:

It's possible that Barack Hussein Obama has more Irish blood in his veins than I do!

[peruban]

37. Proud Latin mutt here.

Somehow some Incan indians had a big buffet with hundreds of potato varieties, rocoto, anticuchos, and ceviche with Jesuit Catholics and somebody threw equal parts Cuban/Gypsy black beans, rice, plantains, and yuca in and here I be.

[pink-o]

38. I am inordinately proud of my claim to Mutt-dom

Half Celtic/Semitic here. And all peasant class, not a single drop of blue blood. We are the strong ones: my father's Jewish family especially are strong and long-lived, so I'm glad to get a fighting genetic chance at a long, healthy life.

Through marrying off royals to each other, hemophilia spread across Europe last century, and the condition ultimately helped bring down Imperial Russia. I say cast your nets far and wide, find another mutt, have strong children and eventually there'll be no more racism.

[peruban]

39. I purposfully look for cultural diversity when I consider dating.

My ex-wife was a German-Norwegian from North GA with a full accent and everything. I thought that would be an interesting genetic experiment given my Native American/Latin roots.

[StarryNite]

41. Mutts rule!

When I told my mother that my husband and I adopted our pound puppy mutt, the first thing she said was, "Mutts are my kind of people!" Sadly my mom died a couple of years ago but the spirit of the mutt in her lives on as I have proudly passed that label on to my own two kids. :loveya:

[clspector]

42. A modest proposal . . .

Since they've begun cracking the human genome, it appears that those designations that we use to determine race are actually the tiniest part of what makes up our genetic code.

We're all mutts and we're all the same family. Woof.

clspector

[bluestateboomer]

43. Mutts Rule!

English, French with Polish and Ukrainian Jewish, married to an asian.
Muttocracy forever!!!!:grouphug: :toast:

[Auggie]

44. Yeah, I know Mr. President-elect, but you're also one smart dude.

Don't forget to remind people about that also.

[ailsagirl]

45. I guess we're all "mutts" but he's a thoroughbred in every other way

:bounce:

[Raine]

48. Obama may be a "mutt" but he's pure CLASS. nt

[AspenRose]

49. Hybrid Vigor, baby!

:woohoo: Mutts! Proud to be one!