Becuase Everything Else Sucks

The Colbert Report: Barack Obama Isn’t Black

By Manila Ryce
Published Saturday, February 10th, 2007, 6:02 am
Filed under: Videos: Political, Society/Culture: Racism, Society/Culture, Videos, US Politics


Although Barack Obama identifies himself as a black guy, Republicans and some African-Americans are saying hes not. Debra Dickerson believes that you need to be the descendant of West African slaves brought to America to be black. The process of dehumanization and its effects against ones ancestors is then the reference point used to define a black person. By this definition, being black is more a cultural identity, or inherited scar than a racial experience. While I dont necessarily agree with her argument, Dickerson does have some interesting ideas and plays a good sport as Stephen pushes nearly every hot button topic pertaining to slavery. Your personal thoughts on this debate are encouraged.

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30 Responses to “The Colbert Report: Barack Obama Isn’t Black”

  1. This pretty much proves my argument against the use of the politically correct term “African American” in reference to Black Americans. To say “African-African American” is redundant. Obama is of African-American decent. Most Blacks in America are more “American” than most whites. I see no reason why Blacks should not be proud of their African heritage, but we all do share a common American heritage of which we all are a part. Why can’t we stress our common heritage instead? Surely not all people of European decent in the US owned slaves. This is an ugly part of our history that should never be forgotten, yet I do not think it is the sole defining characteristic of the Black experience, if you will. I would not deny racism is still an unfortunate reality in this country, but by dwelling on these differences do we really do anything constructive in eliminating such a reality?

    WillySF
    02/10/07 at 10:05 am

  2. As an African American from West African decent, I find my sister’s comments to be completely ridiculous. How can we descendants of Africans, who have been mixed with the blood of our white founders, now sit and try to claim some higher level of blackness, than this brother, who is even closer to the continent that most of us? Being black in America is rooted in the experience of history, which since none of us “modern day negroes have been slaves ourselves,” is translated to the modern black experience. This experience is based on disparate treatment attributed to you because the color of your skin indicates your origin. Barak’s Kenyay and my Senagalese origins do not bring cause for different treatment in america in 2008. More importantly, the man’s wife and daughters are black. He is not an adopted brother, he is an original brother, with the mother of another. He is what America is all about, blacks, whites, immigrants, ideals, hopes, and dreams.

    JTin ATL
    02/10/07 at 10:55 am

  3. In Dickersons defense, there is a historical and even genetic difference between black Americans and black Africans, and recognizing that fact is not necessarily a bad thing. Past movements in the black American community to reestablish those African roots have never really caught on due to the disconnect caused by slavery. Thus, any emphasis of African identity over American identity has been superficial.

    Where I think Dickerson goes wrong is to over-emphasis the slave past of black Americans to the point where it is the sole definer of ones identity. Surely, there is a line to be walked between ones African origins and ones slave past. Too far in either direction is a distortion of who the black American is.

    Though I dont get this sense from Dickerson, I think that when people say someones not black enough what theyre really saying is that theyre not stereotypical enough. Thats a whole other definition of blackness which ought to be discouraged if the mental shackles are to be released. Obama is the strongest and most charismatic black leader that America has had in decades. I fear that since the assassination of Dr. King, black Americans have only had athletes and rappers to look up to, perverting their identity to the point of rejecting a true black leader like Obama as not being one of their own. Its a bit ironic when Clinton can be praised as the first black president while Obama is still waiting for his acceptance.

    Manila Ryce
    02/11/07 at 4:57 am

  4. This is just another example of the vast racial ignorance in this country.
    So he doesn’t have the same slavery-history as most African Americans, but last I checked, Kenya was, is, and always will be IN AFRICA. And he’s American, so what’s the word again? And what about the blacks in America who are the descendents of slaves? Despite the fact their ancestors were indeed from Africa, the subsequent generations were born Right Here. Doesn’t that make Barak even More African American than this chick is?
    That’s not to say that being a Black Man or Woman in America doesn’t carry a cultural or historical identity and significance, but one cannot ignore that, despite his fortune of actually knowing his true cultural identity, even as a mix, Obama has to have gone through, and probably is still going through, the same trials and tribulations as any other black man in America.
    Let’s put it this way. I doubt the Klan is breathing any sort of sigh of relief at the words and beliefs of this lady and idiots like her.

    PapaFigue
    02/12/07 at 6:14 pm

  5. Just yesterday in Ophra’s show a wise man was talking… Sidney Poitier was intervieved by Jamie Fox… I was mesmerized and completely oblivious to the color of his skin. And now after listening to Dickerson… I am more than ever sure that there is only one division in humankind. Stupid vs. Wise.
    Wise people of all colors can see through the stereotypes, colors, prejudices and labels… Stupid people of all colors need labels and stereotypes. Racists of all colors are just children of ignorance.

    Baharija
    02/23/07 at 8:15 pm

  6. When Barack Obama was a starling, many believed that he was guaranteed the “black vote.” But what we’re beginning to see is a cloud of speculation amongst African Americans, which I believe is actually caution to not exhibit gullibility. African Americans are attempting to go against the notion of blindly voting for someone just because he is black, or an “African African-American.” It essentially leaves Obama with more to prove.

    Debra Dickerson is desperately trying to say that Barack isn’t black by attempting to differentiate “black” from African, her argument essentially deflating into a yearning for a new literary term for referral to those who immigrate from Africa.
    So why isn’t Obama black, according to Dickerson? Because he is not descendant of slaves, and therefore not instilled with the “black experience.” She then goes on to say that, instead of a brother, Obama is like an “adopted brother” to her. Colbert, poking fun at this moron’s “swiss-cheesed” view, says “Well it sounds to me that you’re judging blackness not by the color of one’s skin, but by the content of their character…which I think realizes Dr. King’s dream in a very special way.”

    Dickerson, a Harvard grad and the author of “The End of Blackness,” is an idiot. Obama has gone through what many black men have gone through in this country, and achieved a great amount of success despite these tribulations. After he graduated from Columbia, he worked as a community organizer in the tough neighborhoods of Chicago’s south side. Nothing differentiates him from an African-American descendant of slaves. He is tied to his black brothers. After all, don’t his great ancestors share the same heritage of the ancestors of the slaves that were brought to the shore during the relatively recent 17th-19th century?

    Deep
    03/4/07 at 5:33 pm

  7. Hey,
    I love what you’e doing!
    Don’t ever change and best of luck.

    Raymon W.

    RaymonWazerri
    04/20/07 at 4:27 pm

  8. I’m not quite understanding what all
    this is supposed to be about?
    Must be me or something…

    MaryAnne
    04/26/07 at 10:23 am

  9. Interesting Post.
    I’d never heard that before.

    Barney

    BarneyGrimes
    05/7/07 at 12:54 pm

  10. I’ve been pretty stressed lately. This site helps to ease the anxiety! ;-)

    Thanks a lot and take care of yourself.

    Mrs. McNamara

    anxiety
    07/7/07 at 7:10 pm

  11. it came out to be, that she wasn’t the girl for m. Frederik Kyleigh.

    Frederik Kyleigh
    10/21/07 at 3:50 pm

  12. This woman’s so deluded it’s amusing. Colbert handled her brilliantly, subtly picking apart her points while remaining respectful. Her reasoning is so simplistic and flawed. What about people born in America whose parents are of (black) Caribbean descent? Are we back to ‘African American’ for them because back in their line somewhere there was a slave or are we on to ‘African-Caribbean-African-American’ now? Give me a break. The search for labels to further separate us is one more thing that ails the wider community of people of color.

    Yup
    11/28/07 at 1:34 pm

  13. West Africa is in Africa and Kenya is in Africa. Descendants of West African slaves where born in America which make them African American. Obama is the son of a African man but he was born in America which makes him a African American. When he was a child during the civil rights movement I don’t think he would have been able to drink from some of water fountains in “Selma” which back then he would have been classified as the term “Negro” which In such events I think would make him a partaker of the struggle of black America, thus, making him a Black Amercian. Black people that are the sons or daughters of African American or African peoples in america are designated on their birth certificates as black, but when they graduate from Harvard thirty years later, or win the PGA, or run for president somehow we exclude and confuse what we designated them as at birth. Well I take that back if they commit a crime or receive government assistance ( even while being half black and half white) statistically and for statistical reasons they get to keep their birth designation. Hhhmmm. Let’s just end it all and say he is African Swiss American maybe he will get more votes.. America has some serious problems I can’t even believe we have conversations like this…. Dennis Prager said it best by saying are country, institutions, and culture is producing a type of human that feel more and think less.

    This post is not intended toward anyones response on this post it is totally fruit for thought….

    Michael
    12/7/07 at 3:32 pm

  14. I guess after all is said and done, I am an English-American.

    Neil Yates
    01/8/08 at 11:36 pm

  15. Why does no one mention his very white mother? He is half-white no matter how you wish to be politically correct. Therefore, he is mixed, a mixie, mulatto or however you wish to put it. I think that strictly for political reasons, he has allied himself as the hopeful future of America’s blacks. But yet his is tainted, as most mixed race persons are in t he minds of racial purists.

    My daughter has several friends that have black fathers and white mothers. The blacks do not accept them and many of the whites do not accept them and thus they are marginalized. My daughter having been raised to accept all people as good until proven otherwise, irregardless of race, has several mixed-race friends from the time she was a small child and has no preconcieved notions as past generations have. I think that she has a unique perspective from past generatiions and I salute her for looking at the person from the inside before looking at the exterior. May we all look at humans in this manner.

    Neil Yates
    01/13/08 at 11:20 pm

  16. put it as this.. obama is black! .. theres black and white 0- its a definition of color. theres no one who is apper white. and no one who is pitch black.. we are blended with a light to diff shades fo brown

    NOW ABOUT OBAMA.. he doesnt bear the past. BUT BUT he has experianced the racial area of how hes raised up.. people strill look at him differently.. so hes still has a reltion to the community who experianced the same.. irrelavent to the slavery topic.. OBAMA IS A SYMBOL for which black people and everyone else infact can be a part of to CREATE A CHANGE.. to be president will create this.

    doesnt matter if he wasnt a descedent of slaves.. he represents it.. use him as a representation of what can be.
    why miss a chance to make a change! .. stop buying into fox news and their attacks.. its true but we are not voting his past we are voting on the image he is suplpyin.

    THE ANSWER
    02/14/08 at 11:52 am

  17. How people vote is a reflection of their heart, their character, their intellect, their experiences, etc. I had a co-worker tell me last Friday that her mother votes on ONE issue and ONE issue only & that’s abortion. How absolutely irresponsible can a person be. Obama discredits himself any time he runs as a “black”, for he is thereby participating in the schism(s) within this union we call the united States of America. Anyone who votes on single issues to elect any politician is voting irresponsibly and is a shame to the american system of government and is furthermore an example of why this country’s political system is in such disarray.

    People of CHARACTER and PRINCIPLE would vote for people of character and principle, regardless of their color … or denomination … or sex ( so as to not leave out those people who’ll vote for Hillary primarily because she’s a woman ) or for any other isolated special interest a person might selfishly be looking out for.

    It’s shameful that so many people vote SELFISHLY. Some vote for the free hand outs ( welfare ) that they want to keep coming in, others vote for free health care ( which sure is NOT free … tax payers are paying for it in one way or another ) or for what their community can get out of it or for jobs … not just ANY job but for high paying jobs which may come their way if they vote a certain way, others vote for other reasons which are entirely selfish. I don’t care what the selfish or myopic excuse is, it’s still dead wrong and so abhorantly idiotic and irresponsible.

    Our politics is a fairly accurate indication of the overall depravity to which Americans have sunk and continue to sink, voting based on selfish motivations and not on virtuous principle and convictions of what’s right and honorable.

    People’s hearts are so far from God at this time that even those people who consider themselves godly are voting for selfish reasons while at the same time are ignoring / over-looking / oblivious to Godly principles.

    We, as a nation, get the politicians we deserve !! No matter which politician you pick from the bunch, no matter how much you loath or despise that politician or those politicians, we as a nation get the politicians we deserve because I believe that we pick the politicians who best represent our spiritual condition as a nation. The lower we go spiritually as a nation, the more corrupt we can expect our politicians to be. The more selfish we get, the more we can expect that our politicians also will be selfish because they are but humans and one of us.

    Obama will be no savior of black america any more than George Bush was the savior of white anglo-saxon protestant americans !!

    If you think differently, then you’re so blatantly ignorant of the history of politicians and political America that you’re enslaved to repeat the lessons which generations before us have been learning thru each and every term of politicians whom we’ve foolishly and carelessly elected to “represent” us.

    Until this nation turns to The One (and only ) True God, Jehovah, and bow the knee to Him, we shall continue to vote selfishly, looking from among the created thing for a redeemer, a savior to rescue us from our own selfish pre-occupations and burdens.

    Lars Mith
    02/18/08 at 10:04 am

  18. barrack obama is not an african american, the term african americans was created by american blacks. african americans are AMERICAN!

    barack americananess comes from his mother and blackness comes from his father who is from kenya

    he’s Kenyan-American by culture not an african american. some people cant differiate a continent from from a country inside a continet. why arent modern day egyptians seen as african americans? isnt egypt in africa they are egyptian americans.

    the term african american was created for a reason and it had not one thing to do with immigrant african groups!

    is obama american? yes
    is he black? yes
    is he an african american? no

    AFRICAN AMERICAN=AMERICANS NOT IMMIGRANT BLACKS.

    jamaicans are of african descent by slavery descent when they come here they are jamaicans not african americans

    city1
    02/19/08 at 4:16 pm

  19. This woman’s so deluded it’s amusing. Colbert handled her brilliantly, subtly picking apart her points while remaining respectful. Her reasoning is so simplistic and flawed. What about people born in America whose parents are of (black) Caribbean descent? Are we back to ‘African American’ for them because back in their line somewhere there was a slave or are we on to ‘African-Caribbean-African-American’ now? Give me a break. The search for labels to further separate us is one more thing that ails the wider community of people of color.

    Yup
    11/28/07 at 1:34 pm

    re:shes not deluted you are and you just dont get it and theres no such thing as people of color white people are colored too.,

    you paint african caribbean, african american now ask yourself whats the difference, black people of afro-caribbean descnt are not african american thats the difference their nationality is not american thats not what they claim to be they claim jamaican , haitian, trini etc we are all black but region seperates us nationality and culture.

    an african cooming to america is ghana-american or just african..,

    city1
    02/19/08 at 4:22 pm

  20. So here is the thing, many lefties like to say that whites are responsible for slavery and racism. In reality, most white Americans families weren’t even here when slavery was legal. I might be wrong on this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we found out that families of most white Americans never even owned slaves. In fact, we do have evidence that many white Americans ancestors were economic slaves during the industrial revolution when many of their great grandparents worked for nothing in horrible conditions.

    Now lets look at Obama whose mother is a white Americans from Kansas. I would love to see if her ancestors owned slaves. If that were the case, Obama’s lineage would be more responsible for slavery then most white Americans. Like stated above, his father was from Africa, hence his ancestors were not the kin of American slaves. I guess that means Obama is more to blame them the Italians, Irish and poor working class whites that liberals love to blame for slavery.

    Fraud
    06/9/08 at 4:21 pm

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  23. Obama is only 6.25% black. By law, you have to be 1/8th or 12.5% of a minority to be considered a member of that minority. On the other hand, he’s 43.75% Arab. So Obama is an Arab-American, not an African-American.

    jdog85
    11/5/08 at 12:00 am

  24. Barack Obama isn’t black. While he can be considered african american, because he is of “african” descent, he can’t be considered black nor as white. He’s a child of mixed heritage, both African and Caucasian. In politics, whenever a caucasian person has a child with an african american, they are often considered as being “black”. When a “white” politician is accused of having a child with a “black” member of society, he/she is accused of “fathering/mothering a black child” but this isn’t possible because he or she isn’t “black”. What’s important is not that a “black” person has went past the divide and become the president of our country, but that a child of both sides of the racial divide has risen to the top to guide us all. I, as a child of mixed heritage, believe this is so, though others may disagree. But honestly, there are still going to be people who still think that both his parents are black because of this constant labeling of people in this society.

    MWHama
    11/6/08 at 12:15 pm

  25. I’m sorry he is Black, if it was 1800 He would be in slavery, in America if you have a drop of black blood in you your black!, He is more ‘African’ Then ‘American’ and If you saw him on the street would you think is his black?

    Brent
    11/30/08 at 1:58 pm

  26. God sake why does it matter we’re all Human beings!

    Annoymous
    11/30/08 at 1:59 pm

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  28. Obama is not black in the earliest of colonial times in america any child born from a white woman was legally considered free! Thats how many blacks (light skinned mixed)were free and also owned slaves,were sent over europe to get an education.Secretly funded by their slave holding parents back here in america.When we black americans say someone is not black we are not ignorant it’s that we(black decendence of slaves)are talking about something you immigrants no matter what race have no understanding of.Lets just say he is not the first “black” president .Before you ignorant people question anyone just remmember we (blacks decendents of slaves )know more secrets about these families that you read about for you seem to forget we took care of them from the craddle to the grave from breastfeeding them to nursing them on their death bed.All I am saying is just do your research!!!

    jimmy dean
    12/21/08 at 7:56 pm

  29. If Obama isn’t black then neither are his children. To go by percentages, for the sake of argument, Obama’s children are “25% white”. How come then people don’t argue that is children “aren’t black”. From eyeballing the local African American population, I would say a plurality look like Obama’s children, yet I can say with almost absolute certainty that the people living here view them as black. In accordance with the argument that Obama isn’t black because he is “50 percent white” wouldn’t the same argument hold for a sizable number of African Americans who have white ancestry whether the white ancestry is 50% or 10%? In other words, why is someone 50% white and 50% black “not black”, yet someone 75% black and 25% white seen “as black”? And who is to enforce these blood quantums? I personally don’t think African Americans go around on witch hunts to figure out who is “100% black” and who is not. I have personally never met a black person who thinks in strict percentages. If anything, I’ve met black people who think in terms of nationality: “I am 100% Jamaican; I am 100% Somali, etc”. NEVER have I met a black person say: “You are only 98% black? Then I don’t accept you because I only accept 100% blacks”. The phrase “100% black” is ludicrous.

    Ryan Moon
    01/4/09 at 3:13 am

  30. it’s simple idiots. By black we refer to the racial group that evolved in sub-saharan africa. Period. It’s simple to test for the genes. I saw on a special that Chris Tucker is 90% black, Oprah is like 93%, Quincy Jones 50%. Based on Obama’s appearance I’d say he’s probably 10-20% black at most. It’s stupid to call him black. Having tan skin or whatever doesnt mean anything. There are albinos in africa (they are actually persecurted) that are racially ‘black’. If we werent so damn politically correct we could use the precise term ‘negroid’ instead of the coincidental color black. Yes most people of the negroid race tend to have black skin, but having dark skin doesnt make u a negroid. It’s called logic. All dogs have 4 legs. Horses have 4 legs. Horses arent dogs. Seeing the 80 IQ logic in all these racial posts is hilarious. People assume somehow that being negroid is inferior. It’s not inferior. It just is. Obama is a hybrid of these various peoples, and apparently a small percentage of those are negroid. It is a set of genes that group of humans evolved to thrive in their native environment. Stop crying.

    duh
    12/11/09 at 9:43 pm

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