Biraciality

[Nooj]

Why is it that Barack Obama can identify as black and even biracial, but he can't identify as white, when he has equal black and white heritage? Well obviously he looks more black than white, but that's just skin colour. Or is that just it, skin colour determines what race you can identify with?

Why do biracial people have to choose one or the other anyway?

 

[FlamingFemme]

Why is it that Barack Obama can identify as black and even biracial, but he can't identify as white, when he has equal black and white heritage? Well obviously he looks more black than white, but that's just skin colour. Or is that just it, skin colour determines what race you can identify with?

Why do biracial people have to choose one or the other anyway?

I imagine it has a lot to do with centuries of white-supremacy racism.
Even the slightest fraction of non-white heritage, and you can no longer call yourself 'white'.

 

[Penumbra]

I know bi-racial people that just identify as bi-racial, or they'll say what two halves they are. On forms and applications that include race, there is often a box or multi-racial.

For Obama, I think you're right about him identifying as black just because he looks black, even though he is half black and half white. Looking at Obama, if I didn't know he was half white, I would just think he is purely of African descent.

 

[Nooj]

I imagine it has a lot to do with centuries of white-supremacy racism.
Even the slightest fraction of non-white heritage, and you can no longer call yourself 'white'.

But I can almost guarantee you that the black population would also not Barack Obama identifying himself as white. It goes both ways.

 

[Isambard]

I imagine it has to do with political marketing. Supporting a "black" president shows everyone how progressive you are. Of course, noone wants to support a president who could actually be considered a different ethnicity. I mean, imagine the outrage if Obama started indulging in "black" ethnic stereotypes like a watermelon, or listening to rap.

 

[wanderingone]

Or is that just it, skin colour determines what race you can identify with?

?

People identify however they identify. Skin color may impact your experiences but you choose how you identify yourself.

Why do biracial people have to choose one or the other anyway?

Who says people have to choose?

 

[MountainCappuccino]

It's the result of the one drop rule - it's no longer as rigid, but the view behind it is the same. White is something that's pure and any tainting of the bloodline invalidates any claim they have to whiteness.

 

[mpok1519]

racial idenity is something social and cultural constructs have imagined.

there really is no such thing as race on a biological or anthropological level.

 

[Nathan45]

Why is it that Barack Obama can identify as black and even biracial, but he can't identify as white, when he has equal black and white heritage? Well obviously he looks more black than white, but that's just skin colour. Or is that just it, skin colour determines what race you can identify with?

a hundred years ago when almost everyone was racist there used to be a rule of thumb One-drop rule - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia where anyone who had any "negro" in him at all was considered black.

A lot of blacks in the U.S. are actually mixed... the fact that Obama is part white is not unusual at all for an "african-american". What is unusual is that his father is actually from africa.

 

[Verv]

Why is it that Barack Obama can identify as black and even biracial, but he can't identify as white, when he has equal black and white heritage? Well obviously he looks more black than white, but that's just skin colour. Or is that just it, skin colour determines what race you can identify with?

Why do biracial people have to choose one or the other anyway?

That is a good point.

In a different world, people could be celebrating someone who is half-white as the first 'white' President of a place.

In fact, maybe in 200 years time we will see something like that happening in a place like Nigeria.

It could happen.