If you are looking for a negative commentary on Barack Obama today then you should stop and go to another site. This is not an endorsement of Obama either. I'm an independent, moderate African-American male voter, so Obama is too liberal for my blood, but that's okay. That's his right to be liberal and if the American public wants a liberal president in the White House then Obama is your man.
This is a short commentary on the racial labels that so many members of this society feel they need to put on people. For example, I felt that I needed to identify myself by race and political orientation in the aforementioned paragraph. I remember when I first heard political commentators talking about Obama running for president. They all said that if elected, Obama would be the first African-American president. I started laughing because I never considered Obama to be black. I have always considered Obama to be a biracial male with a white mother and an African father. However, I do understand how this country operates. If somebody even looks like they have some type of black ancestry then society will usually label them a black person. When I say society I am talking about white and black people.
Some blacks will get upset if the biracial person does not identify himself as black or African-American. For example, look at the heat professional golfer Tiger Woods gets from some members of the black community because he insists on calling himself "cablinasian" instead of black. Tiger explained that if he identified himself as an African-American then that would be denying his Thai mother and her heritage. I have always respected Woods for not succumbing to the hateful rhetoric. I attribute this to the fact that he had two strong parents who told him that he had a black father and a Thai mother - this is who you are.
It would be interesting to see what racial identity Obama would have assumed if he had two strong parents, like Woods, who were in his life on a daily basis reinforcing his confidence in his own unique racial profile. Instead Obama's father was out of his life at two years old. Combine that with the fact that he lived in Hawaii and Indonesia during his young life, it is obvious why Obama had a difficult time growing up as a biracial male.
I wish Obama would say that he is a biracial male who has chosen to identify himself as an African-American. That's fine, but it should be stated that way. It is unfortunate that most biracial children, especially those with a black and white parent, feel the pressure to identify with a single race. Some biracial children do not have a choice because their skin color will decide for them which race they will identify with. Despite it all, Obama has succeeded so far in life and he seems to have found a comfort level with his racial identity.
I am the father of three biracial children. My seven year old son is the oldest child and he is hoping that Obama becomes president. My two daughters are 2 and 5 years old and could care less about Obama unless he was in an episode of the Backyardigans. He has questioned why my wife supports Hillary Clinton (so have I) and why I am not enthusiastic about none of the candidates. It is obvious to my wife and I why our son wants Obama to be president. Obama has not offered to make school lunch thirty minutes longer. Nor has he mandated that dodge-ball be played in gym class everyday. Therefore, my son is not supporting Obama because of his policies. My son likes Obama because he projects a very friendly image, but most importantly, he can relate to Obama's racial image on television.
I can still list all of the black candidates that ran for national offices or state wide elections in Missouri when I was growing up. That's because there were not that many blacks who ran for office unless they were representing a district that had a black majority or close to it. The first presidential race I remember is the one between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. I always thought that one day there would be a black or a female president. I never could predict who it was going to be, but I could tell you who it was not going to be. It was going to have be someone like Obama who could appeal across racial lines. It was going to have be someone who would be comfortable talking to black men at an inner-city barbershop while at the same time being at home talking to white coal miners in West Virginia.
I don't agree with Obama's politics and I don't necessarily trust his judgment, but it is obvious that he possesses the gift of cross-racial appeal that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson could never own because of their personal beliefs. I just wish Obama and his campaign would identify himself as a biracial male. I think the media would be inclined to do so if Obama wanted his ethnicity stated that way. For example, the majority of the media does not use Obama's middle name when writing about Obama.
As a father, I am very excited that my son is interested in who is going to be elected the next president of this great country. Every day, when the situation arises, I teach my children about the complexities of race relations in this country. My wife and I continue to teach our children that they should never allow themselves to be defined by the color of their skin despite the pressure they will get from members of society. We tell our children that they are half black and half white. They know they could not be who they are without one or the other.
I don't know Obama, but I bet he believes that he is an American running for president who happens to be a biracial male who identifies himself as an African-American. I think Obama's life story is inspirational to many people. I just believe Obama could be a great role model for biracial children - if he wanted to be.
