Sunday, February 22, 2009
Is Barack Obama an African American?
I feel that racial identification is very wrong. I agree with the author statement in Chapter 1 about if Black and African American is used properly their should be no real dilemma. Something in Chapter 1 that caught me off guard was that African Americans are not a minority. I will be honest and say that I have been a victim of titling African Americans as a minority. Being a Criminal Justice major this is how my field identifies Non-Caucasians. People who do not know anything about our president instantly look at his skin color and his middle name. Because of this people instantly start giving him a racial identification. So far i feel that the African American history is African American studies because we really haven't focused on anything else but the past.
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Racial identification that black people (or any other group of color) make for themselves of themselves is a very different thing than the stereotyping of one group by another group. The stereotypes are wrong, no matter who you are. But how do we get beyond that; how do we go beyond making inaccurate and unfair judgments, and get at truth? And what is the relationship between African American history, and contemporary African American society?
ReplyDeleteThe question of whether OBama is an African American is a question that is full of personal controversey. When I think back to growing up, I think back to sitting at my great-grandmother's feet and listening to her life's stories. Like the vast majority of people, that's all I have as a reference. My black reference includes more of what it means to be a man than anything else along with standing up for one's self. This is of key important throughout life!
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