A word of advice to those white people who resent President Obama being called black: Please get over it!

The latest whiner was a letter writer to the Baltimore Sun. (Make that what’s left of the Baltimore Sun; owner Smilin’ Sam Zell and Tribune Company mismanagers continue to run what was once a great newspaper into the ground.) As a white American, she wrote, she resented the constant reference to Obama as black. He’s “biracial,” she insisted, with a white mommy and those white grandparents who lived out in Kansas.

I rolled my eyes and chuckled as I read the woman’s whimpering screed. “Now, this character knows that if Obama were an ax murderer and not president of the United States, he couldn’t be black enough for her,” I said to myself, then added, “So, the one-drop rule has finally come back to bite white folks in the butt, has it?” And it has.



BlackAmericaWeb.com readers, I’m sure, remember the one-drop rule, although Ms. Letter-Writer probably doesn’t. It was the rule, created by white Americans, which decreed that any person with even ONE DROP of black blood was black. It didn’t matter how white the “black” person looked. Homer Plessy – of Plessy v. Ferguson fame – had enough white blood in him to look more white than black. But we all know the results of the famous Supreme Court decision that includes his name.

Obama isn’t the only famous “biracial” person who’s chosen to identify himself as black. Ann Coulter, the bilious white conservative writer, has a bug up her narrow butt because Mariah Carey and Halle Berry have chosen to identify themselves as black too. Coulter claims Obama, Carey and Berry identify themselves as black to cash in on the victim benefits that come with it. I say Obama, Carey and Berry have elected to ride the one-drop horse until it drops dead.

Benefits of being a black victim aside – and there ain’t many of ‘em – I’ve come up with my own criteria for determining if a “biracial” person is indeed black. Below is a partial list; I may add to it as I see fit.

1. Has the “biracial” person ever been stopped by the po-po for no other reason than that he or she is black?

Even I, as a black conservative, can’t deny that police still do this. Especially since they’ve done it to me. More than once. Twice the Baltimore Police Department did it. The most egregious stop happened when I was in my early 20s; a member of the Lancaster, Pa. police department, looking for a suspect about 14 years old, stopped me while I was jogging in the direction of the place where the crime happened.

2. Has the “biracial” person ever been subjected to the “click test?"

The “click test” goes like this: A black man – his age doesn’t matter – is standing on a bus stop, obviously waiting on a bus. A car with a white driver and passenger(s) is stopped at the light. Suddenly, the driver or passenger glances to the right or left, looks as the black man (or men) on the bus stop, and suddenly the Dangerous Black Man alert is triggered. They realize the car door isn’t locked; they reach out, not very subtly either, and, with a look of sheer panic on their faces, suddenly click the lock down.

Before I started driving and took the bus on a regular basis, I was subjected to the “click test” routinely. So were other young black men, some of whom were light enough to clearly indicate some white .....

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My question AND CONCERN is, why –in the face of that- don’t you realize the futility of trying to so frequently ride in the white car. Get in the car with us, PERMANENTLY. Because of your past, we’d be cautious, but we are certain to accept you more completely than racists are ever going to do. You don’t have to live in the Cabrini-Green; Robert Taylor; Brewster-Douglass, or Morris-Black housing projects of the country. However, you do need to stop looking down your nose at those who do, because racist look at all of us the same.

by   
Sevennotrump
May 14, 2009, 12:40 pm
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This is a good article. In spite of numerous scurrilous articles you’ve written about Black people, some which were unnecessarily vicious & replete with foul name calling. (E.g. your articles about the school girl and her prom dress; the school girl who was lured into physical combat with a teacher; your denunciation of MLK, your attempt to persuade Black people to endorse forced sterilization of other Black people). Still, every rare now and again, the fact that you have MORE than a drop of Black blood, and that you therefore could not help but be affected by racism manifests.

by   
Sevennotrump
May 14, 2009, 12:38 pm
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Tinozagor:
Please look back and learn proper grammar. Perhaps after that your post may sound logical.

by   
RaaSaa
May 14, 2009, 12:37 pm
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Hey , what is the number for pick four ???

by   
Jazflutesmith
May 14, 2009, 12:30 pm
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this about many black growing with the fear of been call black .. with nothing to defense themself when their enemies mistake them for black..that is sign of weak black men and women in the making.good help us..barack has been warning us about this dangerous fragmentation. some of those mindless brute never care to look back and learn. it is not about white folk, it's about black folk lack of logic. thank god barack have his logic intact..

by   
Tinozagor
May 14, 2009, 10:23 am
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it's like what my grandmother says' whoever the color of your father is, that's your color and deal with."

by   
Quita32
May 14, 2009, 8:13 am
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meant embrace his whiteness

by   
Rozzythomas
May 14, 2009, 8:12 am
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Amazing if Obama was an average Joe or Jamal he would be black as the ace of spade, but since he has achieved greatness they want him to embrace his blackness.

by   
Rozzythomas
May 14, 2009, 8:11 am
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Reality check !!! The fact is a majority of African Americans who have geneolgy tracing back to the days of the great American slave trade has some white blood in them. Rape of slave females was common, having them as lovers was common. So if you do a test most likely a majority of us have white blood in us...and we have been BLACK the entire time.

by   
Diggie44
May 14, 2009, 6:15 am
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