To not have the faintest idea what all this Obama stuff is about??

[whoingodsnameami]

Can you tell I dont watch the news?

to the OP... giving you the benefit of the doubt that this is a genuine thread.

We watched "Obama: his story" on BBC2 last night. It was a fascinating programme, easy to watch and not hugely political (am not a big politics person myself). It's on iPlayer, if you're interested.

Even my 2 year old can say, 'President Obama'

Ooops - did I give the OP a clue?

tbh op, i don't believe you...unless you've been living on mars you'd know about it.

i think i'm the only person on mn who doesn't fancy him though?....he does nothing for me.

cant help thinking if OP doesnt watch the news, doesnt listen to radio, doesnt read a paper and hasnt the faintest idea who or what he is, how the bloody hell does she even know his name and that there is a fuss going on?

Claw, don't keep convincing me that I've wasted all my afternoon (when I should have been working) defending someone I shouldn't have! I felt sorry for the OP. I'm a sucker for it, I really am

grumblinalong - LOL ooops sorry, your heart is in the right place, thats what counts

Hilarious, deffo troll. No one could actually be that dense.

kittywise -
"Well , this might confuse you.

They call hum the first black president. he is no more black than he is white, so don't listen to that one"

he's still the first black president!!

bit late to be mentioning it but I've only just got on here

Unless the OP lives on another planet, I just don't believe that she's telling the truth. Surely it's impossible to not know who Obama is, even if you were deliberately trying to avoid the news. I mean, my 3 year old doesn't watch the news or use the internet, and she's never read a newspaper in her life, but she still knows a little bit about who he is, and it's not something we discuss very often or in very much detail.

WWof Westfield, that post jumped out at me too - WTF is that about!?

wickedwitch. he's not black!! He's mixed race. I'm afraid it really pisses me off when people call him black. It makes just as much sense to call him white. He's not white is he?
He's not black either. Call him him black is insulting to that part of his make up which is white. grrr

Those who are defending the OP's right to be ignorant and uninformed - I don't consider myself particularly politically savvy and there are lots of things about politics I don't have a very clear grasp of. But not to know who Barack Obama is indicates a level of apathy about current affairs that is frightening. It suggests such absolute isolation from the world - the internet, the news, day to day conversation with other human beings, for heaven's sake - that I am more than a little concerned about the OP.

kittywise - he is black! just because he is mixed race, doesn't make him any less a black person than any other black person!
I am mixed race myself and I consider myself black, end of.

Kittywise,

"If I'm outside your building trying to catch a cab," ..... "they're not saying, 'Oh, there's a mixed race guy.'"

Barack Obama

WW
So what about the part of you that isn't black? Do you just pretend it isn't there?

I don't know a single MR person who wants to deny a part of their racial heritage, nor one that calls themselves black, my dp included. He and others I know call themselves mixed race. Dp gets furious when anyone calls him white. He is palpably not . BO is palpably not black.

To call BO black is insulting to that half of him that isn't black. As I say it would be just as insulting to call him white.

Of course it makes him less 'black' he is half black.

If a white person is half black they are not as white as a white person who has 2 white parents!!

I don't care how black he is or isn't. I think it's great he's got in and really hope he makes a good job of a terrible mess. However, I will always be irked by the fact he is called black.

Why would someone who is half black think of themselves as 'black' and not mixed race? As I say I don't know any that do, well apart from you and of course it is your right to define yourself as you wish.

hazyjane, yes of course his life experiences will have been very much affected by the colour of the skin and many ignorant bigots will only have seen a man with darker skin. They will not wonder at how coloured it is, it is not white and that's all they need to know.

I am not denying that.

However, half of him is white. To call him black then denies that half of him that is not black.

Kittywise, you have obviously never heard of the "One drop rule" that persists in the USA. As long as you have one drop of Negro blood, you are a black.

BTW, Barack Obama calls himself black because that is how society has defined him and treated him. It does not mean that he does not acknowledge his white ancestry because he does. He is, however, a pragmatist and knows that the first think that people notice about him is the colour of his skin. To think otherwise is quite frankly naive. Do you really think that the rednecks care that his mother was white? Most black descendents in the USA have white blood as a result of slave masters desecrating slave women but they are viewed as black.

kittywise - look, we've obviously going to not agree about this so I won't even bother as I remember your little gem of a comment about your black au pair from a while ago and how you handled any comments from people who didn't agree with you.

I'm black, Micheal Jackson is black... Barack Obama is black, he's the first black president in the white house - end.

I'm not denying my heritage, in fact, I am blessed to be able to have the right to call myself black, proud of every part of my heritage, using the cultures in me to assert myself a young black woman.

I don't give a flying fudge what your DP has to say about it, nor your mixed race friends.

I hate the way you group cultures together! when we all accused you of being a racist when you made your black au pair comment, you informed us you couldn't possibly be racist because your DP is indian.

... you may as well have said you're not racist cuz you have a colour TV [hmmm]

kittywise, if Obama chooses to define himself as black then that is his prerogative and you have no right to question that.

As a white person I'm not the least bit offended that he calls himself black even though his mother was white.

He is an inspiration to black Americans and black people all around the world. He is black.

WW the usual pleasant replies from you I see.

Yes BO can define himself as he wishes.

However, he is not black in my book.

spokette, it's not white ancestry fgs his mother was white not some relative a couple of hundred years ago!!

Kitty, have you read "Dreams from My Father"? Obama goes into this in some detail there, and it's really interesting. I think the racial discrimination/one drop rule history of the US might well force one to identify with the more "visible" part of your identify, iyswim.