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"darkened his psychological landscape" (typo).

I have been thinking all day about the comments by the caller who said that Barack Obama was different from many African-Americans in that he had somehow escaped being wounded by racism. She said that his "spirit had not been invaded" by racisim and that he had developed into an a whole person with his self-esteem intact despite having grown up black in a white society. Professor Kennedy agreed with her.

I think that the caller got it exactly right. Perhaps -- tragically and ironically -- what black Americans are actually perceiving when they see Obama as "too white" is an intact spirit, unscarred by racism. Maybe identifying with an African father protected Obama from such injury. Certainly, as a man with dark skin, he has been perceived as black by white America. Obama's intellect and passion may have lifted him above the competition, but his intact spirit is what permitted him to compete successfully. That this may be true tells us plenty about racism in America and the reasons why many talented African-Americans still struggle to succeed. Perhaps Obama is not "too white," but rather "too black" in a nation in which to be black generally means to be injured. For some reason, the "clouds of prejudice" described by MLK never darked Barack Obama's pscyhological landscape.

Oh this topic is so tiring. My father is from Jamaica and my mother from Georgia..what does that make me? I am voting for Obama because he's intelligent, insightful and has new ideas and approaches.He could be purple..I simple don't care about his skin color.
IPeople see Obama ..and anyone with kinky air and skin darker than peanut butter...as black. They don't stop to ask. Yes, it's the taxi cab test. Say what you will, that tells it all. So you can be Cablasian, Jamaicarican, Bladonesian..dark skin and kinky hair defines you in America.

"I AM bi-racial, so don't try to tell me what I "can" and "cannot" claim. Half my family is blonde-blue eyed from Germany...am I supposed to ignore that FACT because You or anyone else cannot comprehend the concept?"

They comprehend the concept and don't agree with it. What's hard to comprehend about that? The concept you don't get is that race is a concept, not a thing. There is especially no such thing as racial purity. Blond, blue-eyed people from Germany are not a race. Brown skinned, brown eyed people from America are not a race. The issue of both is not a mix but as discrete and distinct a thing as anyone else.

"I don't give a damn what anyone thinks."

Obviously.

"When someone asks me what my background is I say "BI-RACIAL" with pride because i am very very proud of that fact."

Except it's not a fact.

"NOONE not you or anyone else defines me."

That's exactly what your "opponent" here was trying not to do: define you. Who needs to impose false labels like race on you when you've freely embraced them yoruself?

"I realize that just on sight people are going to make all kinds of assumptions- in my life people have assumed I'm just black but people have also asked if I were ..."

And if they've assumed you're "just black" they're laboring under the same misconceptions as you.

The fact is that Obama is not Black or African-American. He is white--one drop of White blood makes a person white. Everyone should know that.

Gaines-

I AM bi-racial, so don't try to tell me what I "can" and "cannot" claim. Half my family is blonde-blue eyed from Germany...am I supposed to ignore that FACT because YOu or anyone else cannot comprehend the concept?

I don't give a damn what anyone thinks. When someone asks me what my background is I say "BI-RACIAL" with pride because i am very very proud of that fact. NOONE not you or anyone else defines me. I realize that just on sight people are going to make all kinds of assumptions- in my life people have assumed I'm just black but people have also asked if I were arab or Indian or just asked what my background is because they weren't sure from sight. So what? Have I experienced the same racism that people of 2 black parents do? Yes...so what? Does that change what I am? Hell no

I can tell you as a FACT that it is a personal choice..a choice to recognize what I REALLY am not what some ignorant people in society might want me to be. Oh, I am not a "phenomenon" I am a person, thank you very much!

the majority of black people will vote for obama, because they themselves do not want to seem like they are selling out. It will not matter what his actually policies are he already has that vote, because of his skin color. Skin color does not equal change. It is the mentality that equals change.

The question is: Is it really fair that African-Americans have to have so much pressure put on them to BE African-American? I mean, white Americans don't seem to have this concern. They can listen to the music they want, dress the way they want, go into the professional fields they want without being called "not white" or a "sellout". Shouldn't we, as individuals, be able to live how we see fit without feeling an obligation to play a certain role?

And it's not an exclusively African-American thing. It's something all minorities in any country do (including whites in non-white countries), and it has constructive uses at times, but it seems inherently constrictive for everyone.

AB - sadly, yes, and the media exploits that by "reporting" these little facts.

Can we talk about the "Bradley effect"? I hear the media talking about how it changed the outcome of the NH primary, but what I don't hear is a good explanation of the Bradley effect. My understanding is that it isn't a conscious process, that whites change the vote subconsciously and claim to have done it for other reasons.

ab-
He "is" bi-racial, but race is a social construction not scientific fact. So, one really does get to "claim" it, although society usually makes the decision for you. I guess one can only "claim" to adhere to society's decision of one's race or not. I think the bi-racial "choice" phenomenon deals more with negotiating society's confusion over race than with a personal decision of what ones race is.

So Repub = Sellout Dem? Hohum

How is Dinkins living on Park Avenue a "betrayal" to his race or a "sellout"? Are black people supposed to live in poverty and be proud of it?

I agree..there is just no defense for Clarence Thomas...perhaps not "sellout" but Uncle Tom is definitely appropriate

As a 67-year-old black man, the inescapble insidious negativity of discussing this topic simply makes my blood boil. Obama -- the only first-class act I see on the political horizon after years of no statesman at our helm -- is not running for a race designation; he is running for presient. The fact that this discussion can still take place in America in 2008 is a sad commentary of how much more progress there is to be made by ALL americans.

Brian
The concept of racial sell-out is divisive in itself. "Not Selling out" is perpetuating division. We should be so lucky if all white people "sold-out".
jerry

As a black woman who lived in hawaii for ten years I think it is anti-intellectual to assume that Mr. Obama is being disingenuos when he says he did not have a choice in describing himself as black ; In hawaii as everywhere else in america the people are acutely aware of race and class. that he had a white mother no matter; he looked black. We are forced to focus on the myopic issue of race rather than the issues. Obama's position on health care, education and the like become marginalized.

#2

Bernie

As a person of color living in America I can assure you, race does in fact matter whether we want it to or not

did this guy just compare affirmative action to white supremacy? nice. that's just what the Conservatives (and Clarenec Thomas) want you to do.

Clarence Thomas is not a sellout, he's an Uncle Tom. he's what Malcom X called a "house nigger" sorry to say.

he's an embarassment to the legacy of Justice Marshall.

Joel-

No...because Mulatto is a derisive term from the slave era

So... Obama isn't African American. And because he's not, he's betrayed them? How can he be both an outsider and a betrayer at the same time? How could he have sold out a culture that he was apparently never a part of to begin with?

His blackness is not his choice, but his connection with the African American community WAS his choice and came later in his life. So what?

Funny...but I don't think black people have any problem with white people appreciating black athletes, actors, or comedians -ie, the fields where black success is 'understood'/aspired to by other blacks.

The areas where questions of blackness are raised by other blacks are in fields that most blacks consider white -like, academics, middle class professional fields (medicine, engineering, law) and of course, politics.

is your guest suggesting that Mr. Obama should refer to himself as a "mulato from Hawaii"?

Race? Does it matter? Really? Following are some examples of what passes for today's journalism, read and weep:

"It was learned today that an 8th cousin three times removed of former Senator John Edwards was one of the principal organizers of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia in 1872".

"Reliable sources confirmed today that the paternal great-grandfather of Barack Obama was the chief medicine man for an east African tribe that practices female genital mutilation"

"A close high school acquaintance of Barack Obama today revealed that Mr. Obama did not protest the use of the "n" word which he had to say when performing a role in a high school play based upon 'Uncle Tom's Cabin".

"A two-year investigation into the background of John Edwards found that his great-grandfather's step-sister was the product of a mixed-race marriage."

Most will snort and say "who cares?" and really, who does? Well, strangely, blurbs and bytes like these plant do their damage...

It's not a "claim" he IS bi-racial in fact...no one else is asked to dismiss half of their background...why do bi-racial people have to?