Obama - Tiger, Lewis and me
Reading 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' to my kids last night, I wondered what Mark Twain would have made of a black man in the White House.
In his tales of a mischievous boy growing up in America's south, you cannot avoid the issue of race. The setting, after all, is mid 19th century Missouri - a slave state.
The n-word is regularly employed to describe someone's "black man": the concept of ownership and the language itself required me to break off from the story to give my children historical context, perspective that seemed even more extraordinary as the United States queued to vote.
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) was an abolitionist, but I suspect the election of Obama would have been unimaginable on two counts: not only is the President-elect black, he is mixed race.
The villain of the Tom Sawyer stories is the "murderin' half-breed Injun Joe". It is hard to think of a phrase more politically incorrect in modern America (or Britain) than that.
And yet you don't have to go back very far to find the idea of mixing racial blood socially and legally unacceptable. As recently as 1967, sixteen US states from Delaware to Texas had laws banning interracial couples.
It took a Supreme Court ruling that year to spell it out: "the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides within the individual and cannot be infringed on by the State".
Four decades later and arguably the most powerful person in the world has a white mother and a black father. In the same week, a young man of mixed heritage, Lewis Hamilton, becomes the Formula one motor racing champion.
Where once there was a shortage of obvious role models, today there are successful mixed race individuals everywhere you look.
England's football World Cup squad in 2006 this summer included six players of mixed ethnic heritage.
Marks and Spencer advertises its clothes with two mixed race models: the ubiquitous Mylene Klass and Noemie Lenoir.
When Tiger Woods went on Oprah to declare himself mixed race, not black, it caused outrage across the United States - he was accused of selling out his black heritage. But Woods came up with a new word to describe his Caucasian, Black, Native American and Asian background: Cablinasian.
Tiger's need to create a new word is indicative of the difficulties around language and categorisation.
The term 'mixed race' first appeared on the British census in 2001 and there has been a recent consultation on whether the definition is already too narrow.
Mixed race is the fastest growing minority ethnic group in Britain. Half of those who were described this way in the last census were children. Schools in Lewisham in South London were recently found to have 11% of pupils from mixed race backgrounds.
But the term is so broad that the Office for National Statistics has been considering increasing the list of ethnic groups in the 2011 census from 14 to 21.
Parliament must decide but an official at the Equality and Human Rights Commission has described the current 'mixed' category as "nonsensical".
For data to be of value to planners and policy makers, it is argued, we need to know whether we are talking about a white British/black Caribbean person as opposed, say, to a white European/Chinese individual.The performance and experience of these sub-sets may well be very different.
One argument gaining currency is that we are moving to a 'post-race' environment where ethnic and racial groupings become far less relevant than data on people's social background.
We are not there yet, but there has been a sea-change in the way society thinks about people who have multi-ethnic backgrounds. As a child, I remember the offensive phrase "half-caste" being used without shame. These days, race and ethnicity are three dimensional concepts.
A British website which describes itself a "for the benefit of mixed-race families, individuals and anyone who feels they have a multiracial identity" has a page entitled 'mixed race icons'. The only two photographs are of the late comedian Charlie Williams and the decathlete Daley Thompson.
As of today, they might like to put up a snap of the next President of the United States of America.
I'm 
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~39~RS~)
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"...not only is the President-elect black, he is mixed race."
Am I the only person in the world who thinks this a contradiction in terms?
I'm quite sick and tired of hearing Obama being referred to as 'black'. He's equally as 'white' as he is 'black'!!!
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...further to my previous comment, though, I applaud you for the first proper article I've seen talking about the difficulties in categorising mixed-raced folks.
That we (by which I mean people of mixed race) need to be 'categorised' at all is evidence that we (by which I mean socienty as a whole) still have an awful long way to go to reach the promised land of a colour-blind society!
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We won't know that we have reach a truly 'post-race' society until people stop asking for your race in official documents, and until someone can be elected to high office without their race being mentioned. I hope it comes soon ...
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Good article.
It somewhat anoys me that in cases such as Obama, Hamilton etc, the media habitually refer to them as 'black' - as though the fact that a black person being successful was so unusual that mixed-race people had to be thrown into the measure to make the numbers up. If I were black I think I might find that rather patronising and if I were mixed race I'd not be too happy either.
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Just wanted to say thanks to Mark for this excellent post and recognising that these people are of mixed race.
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I think this is a generation thing and a society thing, we all now have friends from different races and realise it means little in someones character.
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"Race" as appliced to human beings is an entirely social construct, of little scientific value. After all, all humans can inter-breed and skin colour etc. are of very little importance genetically.
I can nonetheless understand why it is convenient to describe Barak Obama as "black", inaccurate though it may be.
I do however find it sad when politically correct bureaucracies and campaigners try to lump all mixed race people as "black" whether they want to be regarded this way or not, or claim people like Cleopatra (whose cultural heritage was from Macedonia in northern Greece) as "black".
Surely it's a matter of personal choice what we call ourselves? Barak Omama, Lewis Hamilton, Theo Walcott and others thankfully have gone beyond this pigeon-holing. And Tiger Woods is only 1/4 African-American.
When anyone delves into their heritage they normally find their background is much more complicated than they had thought.
It is to be hoped that the election of Omama will help us get beyond these stridencies. We are all either mixed race or of no race, other than the human race.
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So when Mark Easton was a child the "offensive term half caste" was used was it? when was that 30 years ago? I, in my crass ignorance and stupidity, was using the term - without implying any offence - until about 5-10 years ago; but then again I am not schooled in BBCSpeak.
I now use mixed race but nearly fell off my perch when I heard a teacher recently refer to such people as dual heritage.
Instead of patronising people ask them what they would prefer to be called and stick with it instead of this ever shifting lexicon of terms/words.
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I'm mixed race - part Irish and part Scottish. More Americans are mixed race than are not.
Why, then, do you use the term only if one of the races is black? Can't you see your own racism? It is like substituting coloured for negro - just as selective.
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I've been saying all along that President (elect) Obama is as much white as he is black so why call him black? I really hope that a lots of Americans voted for him because of him as a person rather than his skin colour (though apparently he himslef calls himself black). Perhaps we are moving towards an age when it is more and more irrelevant. I truly hope so.
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ARTICLES SUCH AS THIS MAKE ME FEEL THAT, AS A WHITE,CHRISTIAN SCOTSMAN WHO CAN
TRACE HIS ANCESTRY BACK THROUGH 9 GENERATIONS OF ORDINARY WORKING CLASS
SCOTSMEN AND WOMEN IT MAY NOT BE LONG BEFORE I AND MILLIONS LIKE ME ARE REGARDED AS A "MINORITY RACE".
WHERE DID WE GO WRONG AND HOW CAN WE
FIGHT BACK AGAINST THIS PERNICIOUS TIDE OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GARBAGE.
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I think the media is just following the typical trend - i.e. even when someone is mixed race, generally in society they are referred to by reference to that part that isn't white - the intention generally being derogatory.
Daft and sad I know but in this case we cant blame the media.
For Obama and others, they are of course aware (having grown up and lived through the challenges) but they dont see it as an issue that defines them as people - which is the main thing. If everyone else lets them just get on with it without dwelling on whether it is a black thing or mixed race etc etc., that would be great ....but that isn't human nature.
bw
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Seems disgraceful the way the bbc (and most other sections of the media) ignore Obama's mother all the time. He is mixed - just as much white as he is black.
If you're going to describe him as black, well then everyoene black as we all have black relatives if you go back a few hundred thousand years or so.
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My children are mixed race.
My background is very broadly Celtic and my wife's is very narrowly Swiss German, but because we are both shades of pink and from broadly similar cultures, I'm sure that nobody much wants to study the effect on our children.
To use mixed race information to bring about bring about a social change or benefit, we would have to be looking at a large and readily identifiable group of people, each of whom experienced broadly similar outcomes as a result of ethnically differing parentage.
The only such broad characteristic I'm aware of is the number of young people who have difficulty with their sense of cultural identity. Ever has this been the case until the present, but I wonder if we are now entering a time when that will slowly change.
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I am of mixed race: my Mum's heritage is all UK but my Dad was half Chinese and half Mexican. I don't really look mixed race and have always been treated as white. Even so, I have experienced hurt and shame at different times because of other people's racist attitudes. I have also experienced great joy and satisfaction at meeting various members of my extended family and learning anew each time that regardless of race colour or creed we all want essentially the same things.
People who get hung up on the labels are missing the point completely. Obama said that his white grandmother admitted to fearing black men and said inappropriate things: that's a beautiful example of what it means to be mixed race. You feel very personally the implications of someone being judged on race because you stand on both sides of the judgement. And what it teaches you is that judging on race is meaningless.
Obama is the perfect choice to lead in these times. He has first hand, personal connection to areas of critical importance in this century. His early years in Indonesia will give him insights into Islam and his African heritage will give him personal connection to the problems facing developing countries. He's also from a truly modern family of steps and halves. Where previous presidents including Clinton have been white anglo-saxons from privileged backgrounds, his personal diversity will be a touchstone for him.
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Why is there an article still picking at colour? It has hints of segregation and categorisation of non-whites by skin shade and percentage of white blood. This is both disturbing and sad. Barack Obama is a brilliant man who happens to be non-white. The black diaspora is mixed, and all came under the umbrella of ‘black’. That is the way history worked. The ‘good old boys’ in the 20th century american south didn’t care if you were 50% European, they hunted 100% of you with dogs and hung you from a tree. Yes, Mr Obama is non-white. Non white people know there are many words to show they are the ‘other’…not white, not accepted. From the N word, to the C word, black, coloured, mixed, octoroon, quadroon, half caste, yellow, brown, …how far into the ‘one drop’ rule (of black blood means you are not OK do you want to go? Should we categorise his children too? In fact, should we all get gene tested to prove the exact proportions of our heritage and wear badges on our arms and breast pockets? What Barack, Tiger, Lewis all know is that the man on the street and rather disappointingly, the author of this article, often make an unthinking split second judgement on the shade of their skin rather than the content of their character and achievements. They know they are a mixture of cultures, and I respect that they value all aspects of their rich heritages (i.e. Tiger Woods saying he is not black but mixed, recognises the plurality of his background). They know that exact skin pantone is irrelevant, and that what they do speaks louder than a skin shade gradient. I for one agree with them.
BTW talking of mixed fashion models luxurious Luis Vuitton use Naomi Campbell for their recent publicity. She is from a mixed Caribbean culture. Why wasn’t she mentioned as a mixed model? Is it because she is not obviously a mixture of Caucasian and non-white? What about Kimora Lee Simmons too? Oops we are back to colour again. Us and them. Him and ‘that one’. Well America just chose ‘that one’ to bring a change. I strongly advise we follow suite and revise our assumptions on colour and categorisation.
SMH
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I look forward to the day when someone is asked what their race is they can answer "human". Everything else is an attempt to pigeon hole diverse people into stereotypes.
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Other mixed race icons they might like to consider could be Boris Johnson, due to his part-turkish heritage and Iain Duncan-Smith, due to his part-japanese ancestry.
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"PeterJ42 wrote:
I'm mixed race - part Irish and part Scottish. More Americans are mixed race than are not.
Why, then, do you use the term only if one of the races is black? Can't you see your own racism? It is like substituting coloured for negro - just as selective."
Neither 'Scottish' nor 'Irish' are a race.
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I'm mixed race and this article and what has been happening in the world in the last couple of days has really interested me. I really think it's the beginning of the end for anyone who discriminates on the grounds of race.
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Another point:
Finally what about the point of the reduction in the chance of being some obscure relative of your partner if you are a different race to them. As apposed to a couple whose relatives have always been the same colour possible being long lost relatives. Think about it.
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I`m quite sick and tired of hearing Obama being referred to as `black`. He`s equally as `white` as he is `black`! thellers
In many ways it could be argued Obama is more white than black, as he was brought up by his white mother and grandmother in a predominantly white culture. (His biological parents divorced when he was two.)
Biological race and culture are not the same thing, culture is learnt. Perhaps Obama`s skin colour and racial and ethnic background (and those of many others) has now become less and less important because of this.
Yet only a few decades ago a n American`s entire social status was decided by the colour of their skin. What else was segregation in the southern American states about?
Then it became about the country and culture you or your parents originated from, yet would Obama feel more comfortable having dinner with
A) A group of other senators (including McCain)?
B) With his Kenyan grandmother on her subsistence farm?
The answer is clearly A.
I remember hearing this speech on radio when it was first made. It still moves me.
`I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: `We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.`
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King. 1963.
We`re getting there. Less and less can Americans judge people by the land their parents originated from or by their ethnic background or race, however we define those.
Today we judge them more by the culture they grew up in and by their values, abilities and character.
Here`s a further argument as to why the issue of race/ethnicity is becoming both much more complex and possibly less relevant; certainly in America, possibly in the UK too.
http://anthro.palomar.edu/ethnicity/ethnic_1.htm
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Mark's initial article makes interesting points. But people posting here seem sometimes to be forgetting that many, or even most, African Americans have some white ancestry. The term 'mixed-race' is pretty much meaningless. President Obama identifies as black ... more to the point (in some ways) that proportion of white Americans who are racist will most certainly consider him black! So yes, this is a great day for black Americans, and, I feel, for all Americans and all of us, because it demonstrates loud and clear that the human race is developing the maturity needed to view a man as the person he is, not reducing him to a shade of skin tone.
Someone mentions the term 'dual-heritage'. What a great phrase. Instead of all the 'race/mixed/half-caste'-style terminology that makes us sound like breeding stock, a phrase that encapsulates the fundamental and cherished thing: not so much your skin tone but more where your roots are.
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I suggest Soddball reads The Origins of the British by Stephen Oppenheimer - he will find that the Scots and Irish were from different races.
His nitpicking doesn't detract from my point - mixed race only seems to matter if one of the races is black.
Articles like this one reinforce such racism and breach the BBC charter.
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Let me first congratulate the US electorate on making an historic choice - and the best one for America and the world.
Unfortunately, in a very interesting article, the author has made two appalling politically correct concessions. One to historical socio-linguistic accuracy, the other to socio-linguistic clarity.
I am fifty-four, a male Caucasian, and grew up in a multi-racial working-class environment in South Wales and the English Midlands.
In Leicester, the term "half-caste" was NEVER used abusively. It was completely neutral. I dimly remember an abusive term "half-chat".
In the docks area of Cardiff (romantically known as "Tiger Bay"), "half-caste" was almost a badge of honour. And there was far less racialism in Cardiff than other parts of Britain.
The other appalling concession the author makes is to use the euphemism "the n-word". The word to which he alludes was an extreme form of racial abuse in the United States throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but did not acquire such linguistic status in the UK till the mid-1950s.
Before that, it was, at worst, condescending, as in the notorious children's counting rhyme involving toes; at best, neutral, as in the term describing black-faced minstrelsy, regarded as wholesome family entertainment in the era of louche music hall.
That is why Agatha Christie's novel "Ten Little ..." had its title changed ONLY for the US edition. And the title of Joseph Conrad's tale set aboard The Narcissus is sacrosanct to this day! Even the PC Thought Police are powerless against the literary canon.
To continue to treat the term in print like the f-word and the c-word is to keep alive a sinister semantic mystique which would otherwise die out.
I sympathise with the author if he wished to use the actual word. The BBC would have censored his article. That's the only reason I have not used it here. My post would never be allowed, and you wouldn't be reading it now.
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Whilst I appreciate the point you are trying to make, I think Mr Clemens would be a little offended at your meagre expectations of his imagination.
After all, Joe becomes a good friend of the boys, in a way, and Mark Twain was most certainly not in any way prejudiced against people of other races, and indeed his work constitutes an important snapshot into the manners and customs of diverse American groups of the mid 19th century.
Besides which, one of the other things that stands out about this true great of American literature is his vast imagination and flair for the absurd and eclectic. His magnificent New England home, eventually sold when it was too costly after his bankruptcy, was full of surreal details like a fireplace built beneath a window, so that he might see fire and snow at the same time. His story 1601 is a tale about Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh (and Shakespeare, I believe) farting together, and his book The Innocents Abroad shows respect, understanding and healthy cynicism for the ways of foreigners.
So in my personal opinion, Mark Twain would have smiled his irresistible smile and endorsed Mr Obama, probably with an unimaginably witty epigram, and been as relieved as we all are that the far right Christians have lost control of a country he helped to create.
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Why are you reading 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' to your kids in this day and age. this will only perpetuate the discrimination and subconscious superiority, the question needs to be asked where did you learn to discriminate, was it in the play ground, or you dad telling stories!!
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hello again, just another point just because a person in the 18th century was an abolitionist doen't mean that they did not subcribe to the racist ideology that created slave trade in the first place (this is another arguement between ideology or ecomonics)
Many abolitionists had the same deep ingrained views about black people however it conflicted with the good book. It certaintly did not mean that they saw black people as equals. It just that god told them that it was wrong enslave a race of people. anyway how did things get better after abolition, suddenly the prison population in america rose because this was the only exemption from the abolition decree. So the year before abolition we a situation where there was few black people in prison, after slavery reform 1000s of black people found themselfs in prison doing the same as they did whilst enslaved. The prison industrial complex of America was born!!
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Thellers is spot on. The whole point of Obama is that he doesn't belong to any racial stereotype. It's an isult to white people to call him black in the same way it would be an insult to black people to call him white.
It says a lot about the BBC that this morning we saw lots of celebration from a village in Kenya, but none from a town in Kansas.
When are the reporters going to get it - he's not America's first black president, he's America's first multi racial president and thats about unity, not tribal labels.
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Quite right. Why are so many people described as black when they are mixed race? It's inaccurate and insulting. If a child has one black and parent and one parent, they are equallly as white as they are black, surely?
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To often we make the mistake of judging an individual on the basis of the tone of their skin and not on "..the content of their character".
Many people are "mixed raced" and perhaps do not even know it. Those of Afro-Caribbean and white-European (etc) parentage can proudly identify and celebrate their diverse heritage. And yet, many look in the mirror each morning not knowing they to have a diversity of their own that only their genealogy can speak of truthfully.
We must celebrate diversity; respect and make an effort to understand differences.
Good article.
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I wish the Americans would adopt the term "mixed race" rather than the awful "African-American". And yes, I agree with other commentators about the silliness of describing Obama as "black". Interestingly (but not, I suppose, surprisingly), when mixed-race people go to Africa, they're seen as white.
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Stop it NOW!
The significance of Barack Obama being elected is that he is non white. Presidents have always been previously white. Was there the same hysteria when the first film star was elected president. Well, film actor anyway. The only context relevant is that in the racially divided 60s such a prospect could have precipitated a second civil war. Barack is not white or black, he is American. There is a well known black TV cook who in the programme about ancestors discovered he had slave relatives and white slaver relatives. The point being, looking at him you would not suspect such a bizarre backgraound. His colour is meaningless. Which is as it should be. My son married a Spanish woman and has two lovely children. Are they mixed race? Would it be different if she had been Mexican? Allegiance is what should be important. The new president is an American Democrat and that is that.
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"1. At 1:51pm on 05 Nov 2008, thellers wrote:
"...not only is the President-elect black, he is mixed race."
Am I the only person in the world who thinks this a contradiction in terms?
I'm quite sick and tired of hearing Obama being referred to as 'black'. He's equally as 'white' as he is 'black'!!!!"
It could be deemed "racism acceptable for the 21st century."
It's puzzling anyway.
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The whole point of the discussion is flawed - there is only one scientific catergorisastion worth making and that is we are a species not a race or races we are Homo Sapien.
Do not fall into the trap of 'race' this is a socialogical statement not a biological one, as the above is.
Race catergorisationn was first developed to justify the atlantic slave trade - that the 'negro' was sub human of an inferior race.
'Black' was a political response to this - and pre the genetic evidence of one source of human ancestory - Africa.
Mixed race is a damaging catergory as it ensures that the question of purity is maintained. Equally for every shade of pigmentation. Some consider Barack as not worthy of the term black as a result.
There is no such thing as race - stop using the catergory and you will ease your contradictions.
Skin pigmentation differences simply reflect -migration paterns that have been going on for at least 50,000 years.
I suggest everyone takes a look at this - http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/12/1212_021213_journeyofman.html
By analyzing DNA from people in all regions of the world, geneticist Spencer Wells has concluded that all humans alive today are descended from a single man who lived in Africa around 60,000 years ago.
African populations have the most ancient alleles [gene pairs that code for specific traits] and the greatest genetic diversity, which means they're the oldest, our species probably had arisen by 150,000 years ago, with a population of perhaps 10,000 individuals.
I suggest with Barrack's election we stop using the old social catergory of 'race' and enter the new world of one species - homo sapiens.
Please!
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I'm fed up with hearing that Obama is black. His mother is white, of mixed Irish, English and Cherokee descent, according to Wikipedia. His father, as we know, is Kenyan, a very successful man in evolutionary terms in having a large number of offspring by several women. Barack is a great example of hybrid vigour, which is something we look for in animal breeding, but bizarrely enough want to turn our noses up at when we are talking about humans. The sooner we get more of these genes stirred in together the better in my opinion.
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I do believe this article had good intentions, however in the light of the events that were highlighted in the conclusion of the US election and F1 Grand Prix I believed, they are flawed.
It is true that both Obama and Hamilton are of mixed origin (Black and White) and it is this combination expecially were issues lie within our society. If you listened to the media coverage during the both events, both individuals were referred to by well learned reporters from the BBC and other organisations as Black. All the reporters know the genetic make up of the two individuals, but that did not deter them from making the statements. The issue is how they are treated in the society we live in prior to any success they achieve, which is in synch with Black people and the perceived action/sterotypes (not all individuals take this stance) by others. They are looked upon the society as Black regardless of their heritage in both the US and the rest of the World. They have had to deal with the negativity associated with anger and hatred shown to individuals who have darker skin by ignorant buffoons, who do not realise it is one of nature’s gifts to help deal with the elements in hotter climates. Are those persons able to make rationale distinctions between Black and those who are of mixed heritage, I think not. This view is not taken by all Caucasians or other non blacks, however when the news is documented Black and Mixed Race invariable end up in the same box.
In order to change this view, the media need to take a more learned approach when reporting stories to include the full details to the lay public who are not aware of them. In the election coverage last night Justin Webb from the BBC kept on making reference to a Black man (Barack) being elected and living in the Whitehouse with his Black family. These statements could be seen to reinforce the ignorance that is being held by a large number of people, however it could be a true reflection on how they are viewed by others as a whole. I believe it would helpful if Black was not viewed upon in a negative context, for e.g. Black Wednesday, Black Monday. After all when the reporters reported the story of a Black Man entering the Whitehouse, all I saw was jubilation and tears of joy.
Lets use this historic occasion to remove the impact of colour on the success any person can achieve because it has been proven that it can not and will not be a valid barrier any longer.
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I would caution anyone reading Mark Twain to children. You need to put him in historical context so children understand his deep and lasting prejudice.
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Dear me, bedtime reading in your house is a heavy scene. I used to get Conan Doyle and C S Lewis from my Dad. I thought that was tough enough for a four year old.
Later on in my youth I heard the recording on the radio of the speech in which Dr.King spoke that people should be judged by the content of their character, my young heart leapt for joy as here was a man who had said it all.
Now more than four decades later we have moved on and much of the credit belongs to that brave man and the good people he inspired.
We need to reject the arguments of those who choose to focus on our differences and accept our common humanity.
The only reason some choose to emphasise difference is because they wish to control others by rewarding some and decrying the others. This is not the way to go forward.
I must confess that when I am asked as to my ethnic origin I always enter Irish as it is sort of truthful but not completely. The box I would wish to tick would be marked Human Being.
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on the point of acceptable racism, look at how our society treats asylum seekers that is the acceptable form of racism today.
Barrack deems himself as black why is that not enough? i really don't like the idea of separate groups of differnent people as that allows those in control to divide and rule. a classic move devloped during this country colonial past.
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Obama is not the first black president, if black is used to describe someone who has black heritage. He is actually the seventh.
See
http://www.voice-online.co.uk/content.php?show=13698
This article makes the point that the only difference between Obama and all the others was that they weren't too keen to draw attention to it.
This all points up the fact that each one of us is an extraordinarily complex mixture of couplings that have taken place over many thousands of years. The term 'race' is utterly meaningless.
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I honestly think this is a relevant article, given that it refers to an historic change in leadership which will have an impact on the majority of people throughout the world.
I remember the words 'half caste' as implying - having neither the vitues of one race nor the other. And so the world famous names figuring in this article speak directly to that lie.
Making a seperate point, I was reminded that Jesse Jackson once called Obama 'not black enough'.
How wrong that proved to be.
I don't feel comfortable saying this, but I believe the reality to be that no black man preaching about the oppression of his people could until the present time have become the first non-white to acheive the US presidency.
It has been Obama's unique ability to appeal through his eloquence and his mixed ethnicity to generate votes from so many different racial groups.
The American people did not see through this man's colour to 'his true character'.
They bought a package that had something for everyone ... and if he proves to be all that is hoped for, maybe we need more packages like him.
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this is a good blog mark but one of your conclusions i have to disagree with fully
this
Mixed race is the fastest growing minority ethnic group in Britain.
is fundimentaly flawed as mixed race cannot be its own ethnic group by its nature.
a celt is a celt a saxon is a saxon etc etc the english are a mixed race and proud of it but they have no single ethnic origin and thus not many can claim minority status where as in the celtic lands they can to a greater degree as in some areas there blood line can be traced to a single ethnic group.
native americans had tribes but the majority stems from a single culture, where as white americans can find it difficult to trace there ethnic origins they group themselfs into american irish,italian, english etc etc but a vast majority are of mixed ethnic background.
but they cannot be an ethnic group of there own again due to its nature.
thus mixed ethnic groups cannot be an ethnic minority of its own but they are essential to the human race as a whole to that there will never be an arguement.
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only when we stop looking at the colour of people's skin will there ever be equality
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I agree with all the people on this post, everyone should read Oppenheimer's book at school about our DNA heritage. We are one race, the human race.
As Morgan Freeman said, why have black history month, it's AMERICAN history. and he also said to a reporter "stop calling me a black man and I will stop calling you a White man" That's the way as a start to stop this nonsense.
In the article I was distrubed by this:
"But the term is so broad that the Office for National Statistics has been considering increasing the list of ethnic groups in the 2011 census from 14 to 21.
Parliament must decide but an official at the Equality and Human Rights Commission has described the current 'mixed' category as "nonsensical"."
How is mixed more nonsensical than black or white? Explain that to me? white and black terms are political terms left over from the last century. Do we go around calling Chinese people yellow? or Indian people brown? (Or people from Croydon and Essex orange?) (joke)
I would be prepared to demonstrate in the street against government attempts to make me tick another 'mixed' box. I will tick all of them in the next census.
Let's all tick 'mixed race' at the next census because we all are mixed race. Come on people!
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Why is the BBC obsessed with skin colour? Why does it use ridiculous black and white terms such as black, and ..er white?
Seriously though, it seems to me that anybody who doesn’t have pink skin is termed as black. Don‘t you see how offensive this is not to mention how juvenile it is?
Oh, and your talk of role models and mixed race is patronising. Does your mixed race group live in mixed race houses in Mixed Race road in Mixed Race city? Can’t you see that people do not necessarily want to stay in your mixed race box or your white box or your black box?
This is the kind of trap the BBC always falls into, just like when it decided to call a radio station the Asian Network and presumably expected Chinese people to listen to Indian programmes and vice versa. This is like having a Europe Network in Tokyo, where the French are expected to listen to English shows and vice versa. The word patronising again comes to mind.
Your blog is a compendium of the usual BBC liberal do-good clichés. Perhaps we should find a decent role model for BBC journalists; perhaps someone who reports the news and doesn’t feel the need to change the world. Perhaps you should spend some time in the sun, get yourself a tan and then you too can look up to your new heroes, Charlie Williams, Barak Obama and the rest.
Reporting the news must be hard work and presumably rewarding. Putting out patronising clichés about how the little people have new role models is easy and brainless and pointless…. and surely not the role of the BBC.
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Excellent article.
I cannot stand it when mixed race people are pushed aside into the race that they look the most like.
As for the part of Tiger Woods and people claiming that he was "selling ou this black heritage", what would these people rather have had him do? sell out his white heritage?
I'm just glad i finally have my own race to tick on forms, because i must admit i became rather tired of reffering to my race as "other."
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If you have any black heritage then you are black. More so if you look black. .....let me explain........This is because you look black. The world perceives you as black. It's like a horse trying to claim it's a zebra. If it does not have the stripes then it is a horse. Why deny it. Obama looks more black than he does white. Why deny it. He is perceived as black, he sees himself as black and so does the rest of the world. Does that make him a lesser person? No. Does that mean he does not acknowledge his white heritage? No. It just means yes he is of mixed heritage but he sees himself as black and so does the world. ..And black or white ...He is an exceptional man who is to be admired for his intelligence and ability to conquer great odds....When all is said and done, he is a president to all ...black, white, brown, yellow.....multicolored.....you name it. So lets get over the black/ white nonsense and just see him for what he is....A great man who has renewed the hope amidst a people that were in great despair. ....a man who will unify us all and stop all this war-mongering and senseless killing. .....hopefully a man who will teach us to see ourselves as one race.....the Human Race.
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For all the mixed race couples out there please BBC, call President Obama, Lewis Hamilton and others mixed race when they are ! There are many other mixes. It is a race that needs to be recognised, and there are many ! I was disappointed that President Obama did not mention mixed race in his speech, it was an ideal opportunity however it probably reflected USA shortcomings in this obviously sensitive area !
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I think Obama prefers to be referred to as being black. not mixed. You figure it out.
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I thought this was a blog about the UK?
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The day we just refer to someone as the next president elect not black not white not mixed race is the day we will have truly progressed
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Why do I get this error. Your comment contains some HTML that has been mistyped ? Data at the root level is invalid on line 1
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Why do I get this error. Your comment contains some HTML that has been mistyped ? Data at the root level is invalid on line 1. MGC
Yeah its weird. As far as I can work out it can happen if you copy and paste from a webpage (it carries invisible HTML with it). Or if you use an ampersand symbol.
I guess different keyboard symbols can be commands in different generations of HTML and XHTML.
I have on occasion copied and pasted a comment into a web page editor (eg FrontPage) displayed the HTML, then manually deleted all HTML commands that are displayed. Then tried again to submit; that can work.
The BBC blogs don`t like apostrophes either, they often turn into question marks.
I tend to type and edit in a word processor, then copy and paste into the submit comments box. I don`t know if this causes different behaviour from typing directly into the box. On occasion some comments seem not to get through, but this might be due to routing issues at the time across the Internet.
Don`t think modern technology is perfect, it isn`t. The more I use it the more bugs I find.
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SheffTim -- yes I have since found that if youcut from the site into say WordPad then paste from there no error. Knew about ampersands. Tends to be part of programming so always stear clear of them.
All good stuff but equally hard work at times. Now I will try to repost my comment.
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Mark, I agree with the need to move to a "post race" status. I have lived in USA and my wife and I visit USA 2-3 times a year for business and vacations.We were both furious to observe Jeremy Paxman's Newsnight special -- suddenly we had Obama's win being positioned as a black/white issue. Anyone would think he was raised in Alabama. Quite rightly many have pointed out that he is not black, but the son of a black/white marriage which makes him mixed race [for the stats] or to use an old term a "half cast". For many caucasians he is just lucky to have a permanent tan, no sunbeds needed. I believe many Americans elected Obama for his charisma and style nothing to do with race. [They also wanted to get rid of Bush -- so there could be a touch of double negative voting].
I have to wonder if this had been Hilary Clinton winning -- would the BBC have been running a special feminism type bias on the program ??
Bottom line the need to categorise people by race just shows that we still have along way to go to achieve the "post race" goal.
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Interesting article, although in reading this article one has to question the motive or the underlying reason behind the author putting forward these views.
Race in itself is an interesting concept. The question that comes to mind then is what categorises a race, if we look at skin colour there are a multitude of pigmentation differences across Africa, going from high melanin content to the low melanin content. Do we then look at these individuals as different races?
It is however true that it is possible to genetically identify similarities in base pairings between people who share a similar heritage, one has to bear in mind that genetic differentiation between these so called races is sometimes less than that within so called races themselves.
The inherent stupidity and absurdity in this article is the suggestion that mixed race is an ethnic minority group. One has to question the research that has gone into this piece, or maybe the piece is written from a position of fear, or need to reduce the association of an Obama presidency with people that consider themselves to be black.
History and genetic mapping has shown us that the idea of a pure race is and has always being a fallacy, which is why you find a very diverse and mixed DNA pool in Africa. The idea of race owes much to human's cognitive ability and their ability to process and interpret this information. If two black African people as you say have a child with white European features skin colour hair etcetera, which is possible, then the child has African parentage but is perceived as being European. This further shows that human beings do not perceive race based on parentage, instead they perceive race based on physical appearance, such that it is possible to have dual heritage but belong to the group you most resemble and accepts you. Much like we have the idea of what it constitutes to be a Jew
What Mark Easton misses is that Obama considers himself a Blackman with a white mother, his grandmother considered him to be a black grandchild, his family considers him to be a Blackman, his nation considers him to be a Blackman. He appears physically to have very black African features. So why then there is the need to base an article on his race is confounding. What is even more interesting, is that those that dismissed his chances because he was a Blackman are now some of the people that are vocally stating he is no longer a Blackman but now a mixed-race man. This shows that for some people race is still such as issue that for them to accept Obama, they would have to go against his own self definition and called him mixed-race to find him an acceptable leader.
The truth is we are all mixed race, all of have are the products of population movements through history. Look to the Babylonian kingdom for the mixing of different peoples, we experienced the same mixing in the Ottoman, Roman, Byzantine, Mongolian, British empires etcetera. The mixing did not just occur between black and white people, but between Chinese and Indian, Celts and Saxons, Persians and Northern Europeans. We are such a mixed gene pool that to realistically place people in groups we would have to do it genetically i.e. putting people in groups such as Blood type A people or Blood type B people etcetera. But as long as we have this cognitive ability and the brain capacity to process it, then either we get to a stage where all races are mixed such that there is no race, or we rely on a person's physical appearance and where informed how the individuals choose to define themselves.
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Interesting article, although in reading this article one has to question the motive or the underlying reason behind the author putting forward these views.
Race in itself is an interesting concept. The question that comes to mind then is what categorises a race, if we look at skin colour there are a multitude of pigmentation differences across Africa, going from high melanin content to the low melanin content. Do we then look at these individuals as different races?
It is however true that it is possible to genetically identify similarities in base pairings between people who share a similar heritage, one has to bear in mind that genetic differentiation between these so called races is sometimes less than that within so called races themselves.
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The inherent stupidity and absurdity in this article is the suggestion that mixed race is an ethnic minority group. One has to question the research that has gone into this piece, or maybe the piece is written from a position of fear, or need to reduce the association of an Obama presidency with people that consider themselves to be black.
History and genetic mapping has shown us that the idea of a pure race is and has always being a fallacy, which is why you find a very diverse and mixed DNA pool in Africa. The idea of race owes much to human's cognitive ability and their ability to process and interpret this information. If two black African people as you say have a child with white European features skin colour hair etcetera, which is possible, then the child has African parentage but is perceived as being European. This further shows that human beings do not perceive race based on parentage, instead they perceive race based on physical appearance, such that it is possible to have dual heritage but belong to the group you most resemble and accepts you. Much like we have the idea of what it constitutes to be a Jew
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What Mark Easton misses is that Obama considers himself a Blackman with a white mother, his grandmother considered him to be a black grandchild, his family considers him to be a Blackman, his nation considers him to be a Blackman. He appears physically to have very black African features. So why then there is the need to base an article on his race is confounding. What is even more interesting, is that those that dismissed his chances because he was a Blackman are now some of the people that are vocally stating he is no longer a Blackman but now a mixed-race man. This shows that for some people race is still such as issue that for them to accept Obama, they would have to go against his own self definition and called him mixed-race to find him an acceptable leader.
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The truth is we are all mixed race, all of have are the products of population movements through history. Look to the Babylonian kingdom for the mixing of different peoples, we experienced the same mixing in the Ottoman, Roman, Byzantine, Mongolian, British empires etcetera. The mixing did not just occur between black and white people, but between Chinese and Indian, Celts and Saxons, Persians and Northern Europeans. We are such a mixed gene pool that to realistically place people in groups we would have to do it genetically i.e. putting people in groups such as Blood type A people or Blood type B people etcetera. But as long as we have this cognitive ability and the brain capacity to process it, then either we get to a stage where all races are mixed such that there is no race, or we rely on a person's physical appearance and where informed how the individuals choose to define themselves.
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I think my father summed it up for me years ago when I was a child:
"If you're not white, you're black".
Both my parents are mixed race and have seen it all - my mother was shot in Kensington in the late 70s. My parents regards themselves as black while my sister and I consider ourselves to be mixed race. The fact is, we are proud of all our heritage and nothing can change who we are.
We have lived in Africa and here in the UK and no matter where we are, we never quite fit in.
Being mixed race is becoming more 'fashionable' and I have absolutely no doubt that it is far easier to be accepted in the most backwards of societies if you are mixed than if you are full Asian, African, Aborigine or other.
I also believe that 'mixed race' will soon become a race in itself. Already the boxes on the Equal Ops forms include 'mixed' and so many more people refer to themselves as mixed than as just black, asian or white.
This is a shame but it is how it was. Changes are being made day on day and perhaps, maybe, this is just one more step towards Dr King's dream.
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I am white and the father of my children is black. I have three children who are now over 30 and I have continually complained about the fact that my children's white heritage is being denied them because they are categorised as "black".
As has been said on this site - do we really need to record people's race any more? - especially since it is so often recorded incorrectly.
I myself steadfastly refuse to complete any details about my own race any more.
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To be honest...I'm still finding it difficult to understand why it is that people are under the impression that a difference in appearance somehow dictates a different "race". Last time i checked we're all..and i mean all 6 billion odd...members of the Human Race. Plus theres the way some of us jump around between geographic and visual indicators for use as a reason to group us up differently, and seeing as culture is something thats specific and individual to each person, in both what we bring and what we follow, why we all can't just be individual or human as a whole is beyond me.
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As Robert Marley once said My mother is black my farther is white, but i do not fight for the white man or the black man but for god who created ALL men.
I hope that this new era will bring about a lot of change for places like Africa and DR Congo. But maybe thats idle wishing and nothing will change for having a multi racial leader of the USA
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there is inherent racisum in the human condition wether its nurture or nature will be debated untill the cows come home.
the times they are achanging is a line that is commonly used and mostly missused.
in the era of mark twain peoples attetudes were less informed and life was simpler but racisum was abound and terms used then have fallen into dispute and even cause violence, terms in general use today may in years to come be classed in the same vain should we criticise litterery classics becouse they were written during a different time if so then many older books will become banned due to content.
that would be a sad day if schools stopped teaching classics and history in full but a cut down politicaly correct version aprooved by nameless beuracrats and zelots.
its like many old television shows that today are deemed incorrect why becouse some zelots decided whats in the best interest of the whole, they are wrong and censorship like this only blinkers the public and in the long term caused greater problems.
too many people who join the governments think they are doing the right thing being progressive ignoring history and creating greater problems then blaming others.
so reading twain to children should never be stopped but being fair and explaining how times and opinions have changed along with it will ensure a more rounded child.
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Original poster here...
I hope and pray (actually, I'm athiest so that last part is not quite true) that the comments on this forum are read and truly digested by some policy makers at the BBC.
I'm not the kind of person who gets particularly 'uppity' about political correctness around issues of race. I think race-based jokes are fine (just as I think gender-based, hair-colour-based, country-of-origin-based, favourite-football-club based, etc. are all fine, as long as they're not intended to be truly offensive)... but I have been TRULY offended to hear Barack Obama (and Lewis Hamilton, etc.) referred to as 'black' on the BBC and elsewhere.
I am mixed race (white English mother, black Jamaican father) and I am therefore proud to see a person of mixed race at the helm of the most powerful country in the world. In the same week, I'm also proud to see a person of mixed race crowned Formula 1 champion. Yet somehow I feel 'robbed' when these people are described as 'black'. I would hope that race need not be mentioned at all (like eye colour, hair style, etc.), but while it is, PLEASE let's get it CORRECT, at least! So please, Auntie Beeb, start referring to Obama as 'mixed race', which is what he is! Don't deny us, the mixed race folk of the world, this opportunity to have some great role models from our 'ethnic group' (although ethnic grouping, in itself, is bobbins!).
Here's a few more... Please never refer to any of these people as 'black' ever again, too...
Corinne Bailey Rae, (Kittitian father/English mother), singer
Melanie B (Nevisian father/English mother), singer and actress. Member of the Spice Girls
George Bridgetower (Afro-Caribbean father/European mother) 19th century violinist
Craig Charles (Afro-Caribbean father/Irish mother), actor
Richard Colvin Reid, (Jamaican father/English mother), Islamist terrorist
Craig David, (Grenadian father/Jewish Mother), singer
James DeGale, (Grenadian father/English Mother), Olympic gold medalist boxer
Alesha Dixon (Jamaican father/English mother), singer
Roland Gift, (Afro Caribbean and English), singer and actor
Goldie, (Jamaican and Scottish) DJ and actor
Colin Jackson, (Jamaican Maroon and Scottish) Welsh former sprint and hurdling athlete
Dominique Jackson, actress
David James, (English/Jamaican) footballer
Lee Jasper (Jamaican father/British mother), former race advisor
Cleo Laine (Jamaican father/English mother), singer
Ms. Dynamite, (Scottish mother/Jamaican father), singer
Leona Lewis (Guyanese father/Anglo-Welsh mother), singer and winner of the 2006 X-Factor
Angela Griffin, (Caribbean father/English mother)
Bruce Oldfield, (Afro-Caribbean father/Irish mother), fashion designer
Mary Seacole, (Scottish father/Jamaican mother), 19th century nursing pioneer
Zadie Smith (English father/Jamaican mother), novelist
Mel & Kim, (Jamaican father/British mother), singers
Rio Ferdinand and Anton Ferdinand (St. Lucian father/Anglo-Irish mother), footballers
Jeremy Guscott, (Afro Caribbean father/English mother), rugby player
Lewis Hamilton (Grenadian father/English mother), Formula 1 driver
Dame Kelly Holmes, (Jamaican father/English mother), athlete
Ashley Cole (Barbadian father/English mother), footballer
Shanaze Reade, (Jamaican father/Irish mother), Olympic BMX biker
Louis Smith, (Jamaican father/English mother), Olympic Gymnast
Theo Walcott, (Jamaican father/English mother), footballer
Danny Cipriani, (Trinidadian father/English mother), rugby player
Griminal, (Jamaican father/English mother), UK Grime Artist
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Why is this even an issue?
I can understand that many people will still harbour prejudice for or against people for whatever reason that they decide to put on it, but for the majority of people it simply does not matter whether somebody is black, white, latino, oriental or green. There is one race - human, and we are all (or at least most of us) that.
Talk of getting rid of the classics and obliterating references to racial inequality is madness though. To simply ignore or even destroy the historical basis of the struggle for the equality that we are finally moving closer to is an incredibly offensive idea and would look to remove from history those who dedicated their lives to changing the situation. People must be able to look back on the situation that was, and in time they will come to see it as the madness that it is, in the same way that we look back on many societies values with interest - not necessarily condemning them for it, but simply stating "That is not us. That is not how we are and it is not what we do".
Civilisation moves on. It always has and it probably always will but people need start realising this and see that people yesterday may well have been wrong, just as customs, beliefs and values of today may be dropped or amended tomorrow and viewed in the same way that racism, homophobia or sexism is viewed today.
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And God said let us create man in our image. Male and Female he created them. I believe that race should not have a place in our society. Some people are using the term to recreate man in a nagetive way. I know in Britain you may not get a call to an interview if you indicate that you are black.
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As far as I know, many people, especially the young generation, now consider the mixed race as fashionable, if not internationalist or cosmopolitan, like the concept of 'globalisation'.
Not only do people of mixed race tend to have attractive physical features, there is a widespread belief that they are genetically privileged----People in China and Japan think that the mixed-blooded children are likely to have excellent IQ level or scholastic achivements.
Whether it is true or not, there is an increasingly shared sentiment : the more different, the nicer--like opposites attract!
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i hate the word mixed race. the yanks call obama black because they dont use stupid pc terms like mixed race. everyone of my mixed race friends in the uk called theirselfs half caste or quarter caste before a white man decided to ban it a few years back. when a mixed race person says to me "im mixed race" i stubbornly say "mix of what". you cant put every half indian, half chinese, half black, half white or any other race in the same category. that could be classed as racist.
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As a child of two Grenadian parents, married to a white English man with two mixed race children I've found both this article and the comments interesting.
Yes most West Indians & Black Americans have mixed ancestry; my aunts & uncles vary from a light cafe au lait to dark ebony!
Yes most White Brits have ancestry from across Europe.
But when you look at someone mixed race or with two black parents they are black for this still means "non-white". Just as my Scottish/German friends are just white.
I hope & pray that by the time my middle-class, public school educated, mixed race children are adults they will break through the class sealing and it won't be so unusual that their race - black or mixed will be irrelevant!
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Mixed race individuals are nothing new. But there are many barriers yet to hurdle. Who knows what modern science may one day bring. We have trans gender individuals, that is people who have chosen to be medically altered to become members of the opposite sex but except for the rare hermaphrodite, people born of both sexes, we don't have mixed sex individuals yet and we have not arrived at trans racial procedures for changing to another race. But British scientists have advanced further by combining DNA from mice with DNA from humans raising the possiblity of trans species entities. Perhaps the half tomato half pickle is closer than the half man half mouse creature but it would give new meaning to the question "are you a man or a mouse." However, it appears most politicians are already transspecies being at once braying jackasses and howling hyenas. One thing they will never do is cross breed an Englishman with anything other than a mad dog as no other species are compatible with Englishman. How do we know this? Because as Noel Coward told us so informing us that "only mad dogs and Englishman go out in the midday sun."
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I personally do not see anything wrong in Obama being referred to as mixed race. Such categorisation only truly reflects his heritage. On the other hand I can see the difficulty that this brings when you think that some mixed race people have a combination of racial heritage that would make chosing 6 winning lottery numbers child play.
There is a deeper issue. The white majority have always categorised race in such a way that distances the white from "all others". And mixed race, even those brought up by a white parent have always found more inner and outer acceptance by the black community more than the white.
Gadually the tide has been turning. One can sense white people trying to regain ownership of the mixed raced people they considered not pure enough to be white - a bit like a mother searching for a son he gave up for adoption because he was cramping her style.
But deep down, to most white people, a mixed race person is a black person, and race categorisation is a white thing. That is the bottom line.
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If Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis became "Jackie-O" will Barack Obama become "Barry-O?" You heard it here first. At least I think you did.
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Some clarification –
Race is different to your country of origin – a person whose parents are from Ireland and Scotland or Celtic and Swiss-German is not mixed race as they are Caucasian; however they do have dual heritage, and all heritages are fascinating. Race is not a negative term, however it is only relevant to scientists studying the history of Homo sapien migrations.
People probably call Obama black because his skin is not white. I’m not saying this is right or wrong (it’s irrelevant as long as people don’t make judgements on him based on that), it’s just a fact. It has no relevance to his character, intelligence or anything else you care to mention. If you learn about different histories and cultures and your own culture and history, the only thing that makes you who you are is your actions. Even where your parents are from is irrelevant to who you are. Studying different cultures is good, but that should have no bearing on your attitude to an individual. That is a truly colourblind society. We’ll get there one day.
I’d love to know from Presbyterian what being Christian or working class has to do with the mixed race debate, and whether his ‘minority race’ involves only Scottish, white working class Christians able to trace their religion back 9 generations, or a Kenyan, Chinese or Native American able to trace their ancestry back that far. I suspect it’s the former, and I also suspect it would be a travesty for them if their son was to marry a black woman (or man!) and had a child. I would therefore disagree with Presbyterian, how very politically correct of me.
I quote: ‘I believe it would helpful if Black was not viewed upon in a negative context, for e.g. Black Wednesday, Black Monday. After all when the reporters reported the story of a Black Man entering the Whitehouse, all I saw was jubilation and tears of joy.’
I disagree, no-one is black or white – some people are dark brown, some pale pinkish, some halfway between the two, and all are irrelevant.
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to 77 hello
your points are rather well grounded but you have missed a major part of the factor out and that my friend is nurturing and every one regaurdless of origin is nurtuered wether it is by the family or by the state this affects you from an early age and in most cases is a major factor of who you are.
as an example my reletive was nurtured in a rather racist way as a child his father never liked anyone from out side of his country, the son has grown with those feelings and still uses them today.
is he at fault who knows its a sad blinkered life he leads but what about his childeren.
ethnic origin means a lot to many people and i for one wouldnt want to be classified the same as the english, as the english have no singular ethnic background.
the problem that creates more than its fair share of radical overtones comes when you introduce religion into the mix becouse religions are fundimentaly more racist than people realise.
you have never seen a dark skinned pope for example, but there again you wont see a woman in that post either.
there are many factors to consider when even attempting to figure out the human condition and to be honest is it worth it, any animal that abuses its home like we do deserves to be wiped out the sooner the better for the planets sake.
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9. At 2:54pm on 05 Nov 2008, PeterJ42 wrote:
I'm mixed race - part Irish and part Scottish. More Americans are mixed race than are not.
Why, then, do you use the term only if one of the races is black? Can't you see your own racism? It is like substituting coloured for negro - just as selective.
Peter I hate to point this out to you, but the Scots and Irish are the same race, so you are not of mixed race. The Scots and Irish are cousins from the same race. In fact the word Scotti, comes from an Irish Tribe who moved to Scotland and gave it it's name.
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Reading though the article and all the comments has made me so mad, and i'll tell you why..
Im a black man if there is one thing I have noticed about the attiitudes of some white people it is that you pick and chose when someone is part of you whenever it suites you.
If your a mixed race race person and you walk past a pub with 3 or 4 skinheads oustide they're not gonna shout at you "oi you mixed race b*****" its "oi you black b****"
I know this because I have seen it with my own eyes and heard with my own ears.
The same way my mum used to tell me if BNP ever came into power and decided to get rid of all non whites do you think they will spare a "mixed race" person because they have a bit of white in them? no, they're coming straight with us.
But now people like Lewis Hamilton are doing well and Barack has been elected suddenly people want to ride the coat tails and its typical, its Andy Murray syndrome when he wins he's British when he doesnt he's Scottish and its pathetic.
Baracks black and thats a fact, and if you ask any "mixed race" person you know wether they see themselves more as black or white I'm sure you know what there reply will be because all my "mixed race" freinds give me the same reply
smh
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This sudden interest in 'mixed race' ethnicity is very suspicious. Has it been prompted by a certain section of British society that finds the idea of the 'First black President' repulsive? No matter how some people will try to redefine 'blackness' the fact is that Obama will go down in history as the First black President. He may be mixed but he is no different from ther majority of people who call themselves African American. They are all a mixed lot in varying degrees. The common thing that they share and by which they identify themselves (and the reason for their discrimination) is their African heritage. It is this drop of African blood that defines their blackness.
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So people of "mixed race" are the fastest growing group in the country. One the one hand I say good! - why shouldn't a nation change its complexion? But equally, the very concept of race is one we ought to ditch. Ask a geneticist and she'll tell you that the term is not really meaningful from a scientific point of view; peel off our skin and we really are much more alike than we think. In a sense, we're all mixed race.
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@75
I'm sorry, but it sounds as if you are heavily biased here against white people - saying they are essentially all evil and racist.
This is a huge problem in today's society, it seems that many non-white people look upon white people as still incredibly racist, looking for 'pure' white people to associate with.
Nothing could be further from the truth - for the majority anyway - who look upon people as.. well, people... everyone is a human, and in this way we are very much the same.
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I think we could all do with seeing Eddie Izzard's Mongrel Nation again. Why do we need any categorisation? Wny does any body here in Britain entertain any idea of being of pure single race. We are all mongrels a mixture of all sorts and we should be proud of that. Last year we sent my son's dna off to a Canadian site that studies the dna and supplies you with a genetic heritage map. About the only thing NOT present in our dna was Chinese/Japanese. There was even a small amount of Inuit which for some reason really pleased me............................ A colour blind god is desperately needed.
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It's 2008, for pity's sake. Live for the future, not in the past.
#81
"This sudden interest in 'mixed race' ethnicity is very suspicious. Has it been prompted by a certain section of British society that finds the idea of the 'First black President' repulsive?"
No.
Don't be so paranoid. Most of the comments on this blog are pointing out that we are all mixed race.
"The common thing that they share and by which they identify themselves (and the reason for their discrimination) is their African heritage. It is this drop of African blood that defines their blackness."
Nonsense. On that basis we are all black, as we are all descended from the first humans in the Rift Valley. As many have said here, the claiming of mixed race people as "black" and ignoring the "white" part of their heritage is exclusionary, very sad and unneccessary. Two wrongs don't make a right.
The whole point is that we need to get away from notions of Black and White and especially their use to include or exclude people as being "one of us" or "one of them".
#75
"race categorisation is a white thing"
Tell that to the Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesians, etc., etc.
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Type 'etymology' and the 'N-word' into google. Suprising revelation! It turns out that the root meaning and usage is not offensive at all. In fact, there are no words in the english language, even profane words, that were originally designed to be so. However, a word like 'cracker' was created to be offensive and accusative.
There is something so very controlling about not being able to use certain words. I remember being told off for using the word 'coloured' to describe a black person. However, I always felt that to call a person black is actually more offensive.
I wonder if years in the future, people will read our literature and berate us for using such a terrible word, black, to describe a person of colour.
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I am mixed race too but I won't go into the intricacies of my heritage. Frankly, I don't care about it. The one thing I would like to see abolished is those stupid tick boxes on various forms that ask for us to describe ourselves. I am sure you know what I mean.
I feel very strongly that this classification process simply fuels division. I will go as far as to say that these tick boxes are a representation of discriminatory behaviour and are a reflection of a discriminatory culture.
I have to ask the question, why is it a phenomenon that Barak Obama, Tiger Woods, Lewis Hamilton et al, should be successful people? Why is the question of their origin of relevance? Are they simply not a reflection of our time?
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is it just my imagination or are almost all people assuming that racial tensions are between people who consider themselves and others to be either black or white.
how quickly we forget about the genocide is rwanda which was one tribe of africans trying to wipe out the other. add to this the racial murders in the former yugoslavia and not forgeting the nazi party who would have wiped out half of europe. it seems to me that we have a more deep rooted problem in the hatred generated by jealousy and greed.
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Individuals of "mixed race" (black and white) are considered as black because that's exactly what they were classified as when racial discrimination was the law of the land. I'm quite sure many tried to claim their "whiteness" during that time but they simply were not allowed to BY LAW.
I'm sure Obama chose to launch his career as a community organiser amongst the poor blacks in Chicago because that's where he was accepted. No matter what individuals may think they are, society tells you who you are.
Science has long revealed "race" to be a social construct. Race remains the fundamental currency on our planet. The lighter your skin-tone, the more "smiles" you receive each day...over a lifetime, that's an advantage that cannot be ignored.
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Obama is Black and calls himself black, the wider world also sees him that way, but you cannot call him white that would be a mockery would it not? and I know for a fact many white people will take offence even though his mother is white. I know many mixed race people who perceives themselves black and rightly so and also I know some mixed race people who look totally white but will call themselves white rightly so.
And lastly not forgetting many afro carribbeans have white ancestory because of slavery we are all mixed but we still call ourselves black and are looked upon as black.
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The whole issue is generational but the
entrenched 'secret' racists will continue to
resist change, which is why every time a
black person achieves prominence, there
are a flurry of explanations to indicate that
his ir her success has to be found in 'other'
genes and not the African orientated ones.
In 2008, it is evry strange that we still
cannot recognize that there are talented
people and geniuses in every racial group.
Accept these unusual people for what they are , members of the human race.
All major religions teach that we are all
equal. If this can be realized there will
be fewer stomach ulcers as members of particular groups moan their loss of influence and power.
As the growth of China shows it is all cylclical, so the old order will pass whether
or not, some groups like it or strenuosly
resist.
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In your list of sportsmen you have forgotten the greatest Welsh sportsman (of mixed race) in a generation - Ryan Giggs!
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Mark Twain would be confused . . .
19th Century view in a 21st Century view
Like the Freakin' Concorde flying over . . .
Queen Elizebeth I
What are you fish heads thinking ?
Christ Almighty !
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Quite right, #93, and Christ would have trouble recognising the blonde, blue-eyed individual he has been portrayed as at some points in history.
I have white skin. Although English-born, my husband's skin is black. Our son is gorgeously golden-skinned (and for this is much envied, not least by me.)
So what?
I abhor (with a passion!) articles like this that force 21st-Century perspectives on 19th-Century characters. The change in how we name people of non-white skin is partly due to changes within their own perceptions of what they'd prefer to be called, but I've never understood why there should still be, in this supposedly enlightened age, a focus on the colour of skin, as opposed to that of hair or eyes. It is a vestigial reminder of an abhorrent distinction.
'Mixed race' is considered an offensive term by some people of colour, and not much used in America for that reason; I much prefer the expression 'dual heritage', partly because it includes me (I'm half English and half Scots!) which, at least, focuses not on a physical characteristic but on a different accident of birth.
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If we could look far enough back on our family tree, I'm sure most of us would find that we were 'mixed race' - whatever that means. Surely we all belong to the human race. The pigmentation of our skin is governed by where our ancestors lived, not by our 'race'. We do love to compartmentalize evrything. Everything and everyone are simply part of the whole.
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Biologically, it's the people of mixed race who are the lucky ones. With parents from two different gene-pools, it is almost impossible for them to have two copies of a defective gene, and they will be free of all the genetically-caused diseases that the rest of us are liable to.
Roll on miscegenation!
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My boyfriend is a different race to my own and we are still looked upon as different. People say "hats off to you" as if we are doing something extraordinary. Both of us don't really see it as a big deal, we joke that I am more Chinese than he is as I speak it fluently though I am white and he doesn't speak a word and has a very cockney English accent. He is the first person I've met where I didn't see his race because he was so English - I was brought up abroad that I don't feel English though because Im white and have no real accent people automatically assume I am English. The question "where are you from" infuriates me because though I have a British passport because my parents are originally from Wales I was born and brought up abroad my entire life, in different countries, and if I had to truthfully say where I felt most comfortably from it would be China but then again, my boyfriend who is origianlly from China going back 2 generation is very much English in all senses of the word, but still people see him as Chinese. When is it going to be that we are of this world. Where we are from does not make us who we are, who we are makes us where we are from.
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