Barack Obama keeps referring to himself as a black man. Indeed he goes out of his way to stress that he is "African American." His parents as well as his friends all called him "Barry" when he was growing up, but Obama insisted on being called by his African given name: Barack. For two decades now he has attended a church which describes itself as authentically"black" and unashamedly "African." If this seems strange when you consider the fact that Obama has one black parent and one white parent, it is.
Obama's racial self-definition is derived from the famous, or infamous, one-drop rule which continues to hold sway in America but nowhere else. In other countries, say the nations of South America or Africa, if you have mixed blood you are considered mixed-race. It would be absurd to call a person who is 50 or even 70 percent white a "black" person. Why then does the United States use this weird rule according to which a single drop (or any visible presence) of blackness makes you automatically "black" and "African American"?
Many people think that the one-drop rule is a product of slavery. Not true. During slavery, the general rule was that slave status passed through the mother. In other words, if a white slave master had sexual relations with a female black slave, the offspring would automatically be considered a slave. By contrast, in the relatively rare case that a black slave produced a child with a free white woman, the offspring would be legally counted as white and therefore free. Obama has a white mother and a black father: in the antebellum South his racial status would pass through his mother.
The one-drop rule was a product of segregation and Jim Crow, not slavery. It developed in the postbellum South as a way to enforce a strict line of demarcation between black and white. Without such a rule an intermediate class of mixed-race mulattoes would make segregation increasingly difficult to enforce. Consequently the Southern ruling class mandated that even a modest trace of African heritage was sufficient to count as "black."
Strangely the one-drop rule has outlived segregation and is today embraced by the very groups the rule was designed to subjugate. Today the NAACP and the Black Caucus live by the one-drop rule, defining as "black" and "African American" anyone who has any discernible evidence of black ancestry. Reading Obama's The Audacity of Hope and his recent speech on race, I see no awareness of these ironies and no attempt to intelligently grapple with them. He is content to maunder about "complexity" and the need to "come together" despite our differences.
The deep question for Obama is not merely "how can America transcend race while continuing to have race-conscious policies?" but also "how can America transcend race as long as the one-drop rule remains intact?" Far from producing answers, Obama shows no recognition that these are even questions that need to be addressed. Meanwhile, Garry Wills in the current New York Review compares Obama's race speech to one of the great speeches of Abraham Lincoln. When I read this on the plane I almost lost my peanuts!
How embarrassing it is to see intellectuals like Wills and sophisticated magazines like the New York Review of Books and the New Republic fawn and grovel over Obama! You can be sure that if a white political candidate mouthed Obama's vague and vacuous nostrums, these liberals would not be issuing such hosannas. In this sense Geraldine Ferraro was right, not so much about Obama as about his white "amen corner." They are giving Obama something he has never asked for as a presidential candidate: intellectual affirmative action.
Reader Comments ( Page 7 of 37)
91. Robert; the Madras' own records recorded Barak Obama as a catholic.
But, what does it matter either way?
Ryan Anderson at 1:59PM on Apr 14th 2008
92. Dinseh -- God bless you, as awlays. The hate-filled drivel from the AOL news readers/bloggers never fails to astound me. OK, not really; I've come to expect it.
Thank God for Rush! Thank God for Drudge Report! Thank God for any news from the "right" side, the conservative side.
National Security: The MOST IMPORTANT issue. Gotta be McCain.
www.thereligionofpeace.com
www.jihadwatch.org
Know Islam. No peace.
mary at 2:01PM on Apr 14th 2008
93. I have not decided who I am voting for, and I despise participating in political blogs, but some of the comments here are so ridiculous they're laughable. If you don't support Obama because he lacks experience, fine. Don't vote for him. But to say you're not voting for him because he is/was a Muslim? To not vote for him because his father was a Muslim? I was raised in a Southern Baptist Christian household and I went to Catholic school for 2 years, does that make me Catholic? The answer is of course "no." (In fact, I am an atheist/agnostic.)
At first nobody liked Obama because he was supposedly Muslim. So he comes out and professes his Christian faith, and suddenly it's not "Christiany" enough. And my gawd, if a presidential candidate doesn't wear a flag pin, he must be Communist!! Gimme a break... I was born here, lived here, and I hope to die here and I can't think of a single time I wore ANYTHING with the American flag on it. Has patriotism been reduced to something as trivial as whether or not some guy's wearing a flag pin??
K at 2:04PM on Apr 14th 2008
94. Christ in a mother fucking whore house...
Don't all of you have anything better to do than to quibble about the amount of blackness that Obama possesses? I don't care if he's black, white, blue, or plaid! He could have a pair of horns for all I care. What the hell does that matter when it comes to his policies? I don't care if he's 49.93% black and 50.07% white. I care about what his plan is for removing us from Iraq. His DNA is not running for office, he is, and therefore what matters isn't his blackness or his religion but what he does and doesn't want to do as president.
Like wise, for nits like Okame, I couldn't care less if he was christian, jewish, muslim, wiccan, atheist, agnostic, or zorocastian! If he wants to negotiate with powers like Iran because of his childhood, because he is some closet muslim, or because he thinks that it's a solution to defuse the landslide of money and flood of blood in the region; who cares? What matters is that he wants to open a dialogue with them. Debate that. Discuss that. Quibble about something of actual substance rather than which mythological belief structure he does or doesn't subscribe to.
And for everyone not on the conservative side; shame on you for even entertaining the debate. It's a distraction. It's what the right does BEST. While we quibble and actually DEFEND Obama's ethnic identity Mc Cain is being virtually ignored for promising a perpetuation of the status quo in Iraq. Who has UTTERLY zero energy policy. Who has no plan whatsoever to address the current economic woes. Who has reversed his position on tax reform far deeper than Kerry ever did. Why are you wasting your time arguing this? Why are you letting Dinesh and his ilk distract you from using your braincells on issues that actually matter? Because every post you make on this subject is just one more that distracts from debates and arguments that actually matter.
Somber at 2:08PM on Apr 14th 2008
95. Wow, Mary, and I thought the hate filled drivel from the so called "right" was bad enough you mean to tell me there are liberals with hate filled views and comments? Really? It that what makes you thank an invisible friend for the lies on the other side.
I'll stand right up there with you that the hate filled comments spewn on this blog are sickening, but I see it from both sides. Surely you can as well. Surely you can see Rush is a propagandist that doesn't give a crap about you or your opinion. Just because those programs air the other side's view doesn't make them any more accurate. Trim that wool back and see with your own eyes. Both sides are equally skewed and selfish.
Tom at 2:16PM on Apr 14th 2008
96. THIS ARTICLE SAYS IT ALL.
FLLady at 2:19PM on Apr 14th 2008
97. Tom, Tom, Tom....
You have never listend to Rush.
Oh, sure, you've heard distorted soundbites and misrepresentations....
No one cares more about me, you, the poor and the rich, the black and the white, than Rush Limbaugh.
Listen adn learn. Many liberals have had their eyes and ears (and hearts) opened by "The Master." ;)
Listen and learn....
mary at 2:26PM on Apr 14th 2008
98. Right on Somber. As usual your light shines through. However if we all put real meaningful comments we would still be on the first 15.
Jerry Brown at 2:30PM on Apr 14th 2008
99. "Did the Doctor suck the brains out of your head, then you were born as a result of a failed abortion."
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I'll take you on any day, Okane.
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You kinda missed that his first 2 years in school were in a Muslim school on so on and so on. So Linda, if there is any brain matter left in your head, you should be able to figure out that for at least 2 years of his life he was a Muslim. So your statement that Obama was never a Muslim and was raised with no religion is false.
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Okane, you and Laura need to read Obama's autobiography.
HE NEVER ENTERED THE ISLAM RELIGION. He went to a PUBLIC SCHOOL in Indonesia, where kids from every religious persuasion attended. THAT DID NOT MAKE HIM A MUSLIM.
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"And Obama would have been considered Muslim because his father and step father were Muslims and he was raised in a Muslim household."
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You are as wrong as you can be! It makes no difference what his father's or stepfather's religion was..
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So, since neither Laura nor Okane knows anything about Obama, except what they are guessing, it is important to know that both are full of shit. Yes, shit. Go flush yourselves.
Linda at 2:43PM on Apr 14th 2008
100. Operation Chaos is working GOD BLESS RUSH!
steve england at 2:50PM on Apr 14th 2008
101. Barack never said anything about a one drop rule...he calls himself African American or Black...So What? That's his choice...he didn't say he identified himself as black because of the "one drop rule"..he is what..he is and that is for him to decide and define for himself. Dinesh is making an issue out of a none issue.
mrsclmterry at 3:03PM on Apr 14th 2008
102. To: Dan
"Dinesh doesn't make me angry, Jerry. I kind of pity the man for his petty hatreds and his relentless insistence that we share in those hatreds so as to soothe his ever-tattered ego.
D'Souza has a comically dysfunctional notion as to what constitutes freedom and equality in America. If anything, we really should be laughing at this little misguided fool rather allowing someone so obviously beneath us to enrage us."
For someone who is not "angry" you sound pretty angry to me. The name calling is a dead give away. As long as people like you keep posting this type of attack I will know that Mr. D'Souza is definitely making his point.:) Have a great day and God Bless!
CT at 3:17PM on Apr 14th 2008
103. Dear Dinesh,
I want to give you just an actualization here from Brazil. Since the left arrive to power, 20 years ago, we start to import polices from USA, like affirmative action and other plenty of left’s stuff. Today, we are almost totally immersed in this process of one-drop rule, which you explained. Recently, a famous soccer player called Ronaldinho (or Ronaldo) say on a TV interview that he does not consider he is black, and have to apologize the next day, because of the patrol of political correctness. In our schools and high grade contests, we have now "cotes" to black people, and it’s becoming a completely mess, since the criterion for admission is no more the merit, it’s now the self declaration. In other words, you say the “color” you think you are and a judge board decide. Twin brothers that were judged separately were considered black and white respectively. This is a global strategy.
Best regards,
Julio.
Julio at 3:20PM on Apr 14th 2008
104. Strados said:
"emelpe...the whole Wright thing is old. Move on. Just like the taxes issue with Hillary was dropped when she FINALLY made them available...so should this. Take from it what you want, but please stop painting the picture that Wright preached blind racial hatred for 20 years and Obama was sitting in the front row every Sunday with his kids eating popcorn and shouting "AMEN!" Give it a rest, focus on REAL ISSUES. There are plenty to choose from for all candidates involved."
I also read that post and I saw nothing mentioning anything about: Wright preached blind racial hatred for 20 years and Obama was sitting in the front row every Sunday with his kids eating popcorn and shouting "AMEN!"
Where are you getting this crap. Stop being so angry.
CT at 3:17PM on Apr 14th 2008
105. rabidmccain:
Wow-- what a lot of words about nothing!
If the media is being easy on McCain, so you say, they are just lying in wait. The left-wing pro-Democrat Mainstream Media is wringing its hands wathcing its two beloved children fighting and getting all bloody, and have no time to deal with the kid down the street who will challenge their baby in November.
Watch all guns come out against McCain after the Dems pick their candidate. Meanwhile, I'll enjoy the show!!
OPERATION CHAOS!!! Thanks, Rush.
mary at 9:22PM on Apr 15th 2008