For some mixed-race couples, Barack Obama is a symbol of acceptance

[DeepModem Mom]

Dallas Morning News: For some mixed-race couples, Barack Obama is a symbol of acceptance
Some see Obama's interracial roots as step toward erasing stigmas
Sunday, March 2, 2008
By TODD J. GILLMAN

NELSONVILLE, Ohio – Barack Obama was nearing his sixth birthday when the Supreme Court struck down the last 16 state laws banning interracial marriage. Forty years later, the offspring of such unions and folks who crossed racial lines to find a spouse, like Mr. Obama's parents, are watching his campaign with special pride.

Usually they're anonymous in the crowd. Rarely do they get to thank Mr. Obama directly, as a local pastor, Leon Forte, got to do Sunday morning at a town hall in Ohio's rural Appalachia region. "I'm the father of two biracial children, and your campaign has lifted them into a whole new dimension," he said before asking about home foreclosures, a problem afflicting his congregation. "And so, I'm proud, as an African American." Mr. Obama thanked him for saying so.

Voters of many ethnicities find meaning in the Obama candidacy, just as many women root for Hillary Rodham Clinton to break the gender barrier. But for mixed-race families, he represents a lifting of ancient taboos....

***

Rice University sociologist Jenifer Bratter in Houston, who has written extensively about the topic, said that "what modern interracial families deal with is questions of whether their child is going to be able to fit in and develop a coherent racial identity." Mr. Obama, she said, has managed to "navigate the politics of race" in a way no national leader has before, embracing two races "without alienating either side." And it's not just about his comfort with his own identity. It's about acceptance. "He embodies the possibility of being welcomed by both sides of the divide that modern interracial families are constantly contesting with," Dr. Bratter said....

The 2000 Census found 3.1 million interracial couples, a bit more than one in 20 married couples. Of those, one in eight involves black and a white spouses. The number of marriages has risen steadily since the Supreme Court ruling that struck down laws banning interracial marriages, including one in Texas – from 65,000 black-white unions in 1970 to an estimated 422,000 three years ago. But the stigma remains. Public health studies show sharply higher stress and divorce levels in interracial families....

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/national/stories/030308dnpolinterracialobama.345eea3.html

[zabet]

1. Obama and his mixed heritage...

He does not like to be referred to
as bi-racial. He prefers African-
American. He must not be too accepting
of it when it comes to how it will
portray him.

[qazplm]

3. or maybe he is like me

and recognizes that while he is half-white, everyone, EVERYONE sees him as African American.

So recognizing that reality, he embraces it while no doubt still not denying he is half-white.

OR maybe he's a human being in America, trying as the rest of us do, to navigate the silliness that is race.

[sepulveda]

4. i like tiger's approach

tiger woods,when asked if he was african american responded that he was "cablasian" (caucasion, black, asian)

[zabet]

5. I have read several

articles that say it irritates
him.
I am mixed and refuse to 'pretend
to blend' like many do. I am proud
of all of my racial heritage.

[MaryCeleste]

2. Given his position on things, why would his marriage be considered bi-racial