At 04:17 AM Tuesday 6/10/2008, William T Goodall wrote: >On 10 Jun 2008, at 04:10, Wayne Eddy wrote: > > > > I am curious why Obama is being categorised as black?
AFAICT the principal reason is that he is the only candidate since the founding of the nation who has gotten this far in the race for POTUS who is known to have at least one black parent rather than being as far as everyone knows a descendent of 100% white ancestors. > > Given that his father was black and his mother is white, surely he > > is brown, or more to the point a person or an American? > > > > If he had three grandparents that were white, would he be black, > > brown, gray, white or a person? > >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-drop_rule > >"The one-drop rule is an historical colloquial term in the United >States that holds that a person with any trace of African ancestry >(however small or invisible) cannot be considered white and so, unless >the person has an alternative non-white ancestry that he or she can >claim, such as Native American, Asian, Arab, Australian aboriginal, >the person must be considered black." > >African origin Maru The fact that multiple people have brought up the "one-drop rule" in response to Wayne's question is sufficient explanation of why it should be emphasized in the strongest possible terms that there is only one race human and we should not consider the skin color of an individual or his/her ancestors as a more important criterion in choosing a political candidate (or a person for employment) than his or her actual qualifications for the position. >Debunking bullshit is a thankless task. Apparently this is also quite true when "bulls**t" = racism of any sort. . . . ronn! :) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
