Will Obama be the first African American President....

[SparkyMac]

... or will he simply be the first Black President ?

What is the definition of African American ? I always thought to be AA, a person had to have a least one AA parent.

If a woman from Nigeria moved to America and became a citizen -- she would be an American. But would she be African American ?

The culture, history and heritage of a Nigerian is not the same as the culture, heritage and history of an African American.

[shraby]

1. I would prefer to think of him as the first

good president we have had in a long time.

[solara]

2. yes yes I agree with you there..

INVESTIGATE IMPEACH INDICT INCARCERATE :patriot:

[Aloha Spirit]

3. He will be both!

African-American means that you have African ancestors.
Even white Americans with relatives from Africa would be African-American.
Right?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. and he has

First American (Native Indian) ancestors and Irish ancestors!

[newmajority]

15. Well, now that you mention it, there were some joking references in the 2004 campaign

to Teresa Heinz Kerry being "African American".

[WeDidIt]

4. How about the 44th HUMAN president?

Well, maybe 43rd if we discount the humanness of the current one.

:shrug:

[RB TexLa]

8. 43ed unless you somehow want to count Grover Cleveland as two human beings.

[newmajority]

12. Well, then 42nd

Because the current occupant isn't human, he's a Chimp.

[WeDidIt]

13. Well, ole Grover IS counted as the 22nd AND 24th

So I'll just go with the official counts.

:evilgrin:

[whistler162]

20. Hmmmmm.......

Cleveland wasn't as big as Taft so probably not!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

9. YES!

LOL!

[EFerrari]

5. You'd have to ask him, wouldn't you? n/t

[L0oniX]

7. DUH ...yeah. n/t

[newmajority]

10. His dad's from Kenya and his mom's from Kansas

If that ain't "African-American", I don't know what is.

[democracy1st]

11. man you guys are focusing to much on his race,it's not about that it's about

it's about his character,haven't you read MLK Jr

[bain_sidhe]

14. right, it's about his GENDER!

j/k. sorta. mostly.

[newmajority]

17. SEXIST !!111!!!!!!

[bain_sidhe]

19. sometimes!

I confess, I would have been just as thrilled to see a woman president as most African Americans are to see a African Americans President. Even if it was a candidate I didn't support in the primaries.

So, yes, sometimes I get sexist about supporting my gender, because hey, who ELSE is going to?

But that's just a nasty little voice in a dark corner of my brain that is USUALLY drowned out by the WHOO HOO! celebration going on in the rest of my brain. I don't mean to be selfish, but we are all people of many parts, complicated and nuanced, you know? There's still a couple of X chromosomes off in a corner of my heart mourning the death of *their* dream.

[iamjoy]

22. Me Too!

I didn't really like Hillary. I didn't dislike her, either. It's probably accurate to say I have respected her as an intelligent and determined woman. I felt she had too much baggage to win and I wasn't crazy about the way she campaigned. I thought she got treated unfairly though.

Some part of me is very disappointed that "the girl" didn't win. We have yet to break through the highest glass ceiling in this country.

[bain_sidhe]

23. That's me, too

Even before Hillary announced she was running, I was kind of hoping she wouldn't, because I didn't want to deal with the "Hunting of the President(ial Candidate) that I knew would ensue (albeit updated with a misogyinist twist).

But still, there was that part of me that said "OOH! FEMALE PRESIDENT! That would be cooooool!!!!!!"

:shrug: So sue me.

[TheDonkey]

16. He didn't move from Africa and later become a citizen like your example of the woman

he was born here and raised here. he is African American.

[greguganus]

18. Wasn't Bill Clinton the first black president? n/t

[Alenne]

The woman would be a Nigerian American

People born in Africa go by the country they were born in not by the continent. The only reason Black Americans call themselves African Americans is because they don't know what country in Africa they come from.

[ecstatic]

21. Well, he doesn't have the slavery ancestry that many American blacks have

The term "African American" fits him of course, in the most literal sense. But "African American" is typically used to describe blacks who are descendants of slaves.

I'm sure the term will change again soon with the next generation of scholars. The label (as its used now) leaves a lot of room for confusion, as many others have pointed out. :crazy: That's why I just say "black."

[newmajority]

26. Well... he doesn't, but his wife and children do.

So that ancestry is part of his family. Kinda like Howard Dean isn't Jewish, but his family is.

[SparkyMac]

28. When I think of African Americans ...

I tend to think of those people whose history and culture were written about in Alex Haley's great work "Roots".

Any recent arrivals from Africa would more than likely have a heritage that involved the wrong side of the slave trade. I don't see how AAs can identify with them.

[iamjoy]

24. How About Multi-Cultural?

Oh, for expediency and out of habit, I suppose, I often use the term African American. However, I wonder how accurate these terms are and if they in and of themselves don't have a racist connotation in this case.

A person who was mostly white but had a black parent, grandparent or great grandparent has been considered "black." Why? It's like saying one fraction of black blood takes away one's being white.

As another post pointed out, African American is the term often used because a person doesn't know the country of their ancestors. It is tied to the slave experience.

So, to call Obama African American may be technically accurate, although Kenyan American would be more precise.

Then we have to ask if Obama has had the experience that we think of as typical to an African American. Well, I don't know what that's really supposed to be, but I know when he was growing up, people looked at him and saw him as "black" and treated him accordingly. So, in that sense, African American is not innaccurate either. He may not have had slave ancestors, or grandfathers who worried about being lynched for looking at a white woman. The friends he gravitated towards, did, though. And white people who looked at him didn't see a man whose father had come from Kenya. So, if the way one is treated by whites and their social circles define one as "African American" than Obama certainly meets that classification.

Some people like the term bi-racial, but I think that's to limiting and narrow. Thinking of him as multi-cultural captures so much more, in my opinion. It includes his Kenyan father and his white mid-western US mother's family. It also captures growing up in Indonesia and Hawaii. I know Hawaii is part of the US, but remember, it only became a state two years before Obama was born and it has its own distinct culture.

Of course, multi-cultural is too hard a concept for some to grasp, and some are so jingoistic as to reject it outright. At least they understand African American.

[El Supremo]

25. He'll be the first Hawaiian President!

I don't like to hyphenate Americans.

[BlooInBloo]

27. Oh gawd. Shoot me now.

[FrenchieCat]

29. He will be one of the best loved and handsomest and Great President in history!

A President for all of the people!

Yes he will! :patriot: