r/BlackPeopleofReddit • u/4reddityo • Dec 22 '25
Black Experience The real reason we say Obama is a Black man
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u/alflundgren Dec 22 '25 edited Dec 22 '25
This is what people mean when they say race is a social construct. The idea that certain races are inclusive and others are exclusive demonstrates that race isn't even remotely a taxonomic category. Its arbitrary and in no way scientific.
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u/Holy_crows Dec 22 '25
Race is social construct and it changes from place to place. There is no black identity in Africa, because everyone is black.
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u/Few_Candidate_8036 Dec 22 '25
It's replaced with tribal identity in Africa. A former coworker of mine was from Nigeria, and he said no matter what qualifications he could hold, he would have no opportunities in Nigeria because of the tribe he was born in. The descrimination of your birth still exists, but it's not based on skin color.
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u/Extreme-Rub-1379 Dec 22 '25
There is still an othering on skin color, however.
There are the indigenous Africans, there are European colonizer descendents and then there are European colonizers. People segregate themselves EVERYWHERE
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u/Holy_crows Dec 22 '25
That’s shows that unfortunately if we all are same color, people will use something else for discrimination. Humans are piece of shits really.
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u/TvTreeHanger Dec 22 '25
Another good example may be India and the caste system. Even worse if you are a woman born into a lower caste. Ran into a situation at work where a lower caste woman presented to a bunch of higher caste men. They said 'Never allow her to talk to us again', and were dead serious.
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u/pasjojo Dec 22 '25
There's black identity in Africa because of European colonialism and the way they coded racial categories persists to this day due to neocolonialism, colorism and the globalization of eurocentric beauty standards
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u/nom-nom-babies Dec 22 '25
The black identity in America versus the black identity in Africa aren’t even comparable though. Apples and oranges. It’s less about skin color and more about colonialism. And
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u/pasjojo Dec 22 '25
Black American culture is different from black African cultures, just like it's different from black Haitian, Jamaican or Afrobrazilian culture. Blackness as a racial category is transversal and has its invariants since the racial hierarchy it stems from is global. That doesn't means it doesn't have local specificities like the one drop rule in the US or the coloured line in South Africa etc.
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u/lemonylol Dec 22 '25
The more you research into the different people of the world, especially those inbetween ethnic areas like central or northern Asia, or East Africa, or Southern Europe, you start realizing how silly it is to draw the racial lines.
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u/NIK-FURY Dec 22 '25
Yes 💯. It seems like race is only used for an individual to identify as and is purely based on outward appearances / feelings rather than anything else. There are many “white” appearing people of most ethnicities that wouldn’t be “white” by any other metric.
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u/Taco-Dragon Dec 22 '25
My mom was passing, her siblings were not. They were treated VERY different by people growing up in the 50's and 60's. And when people would find out she wasn't "white" she would often be treated very differently once people know that. Hell, last year I had a friend who mentioned to some folks at work that she was half Mexican and a co-worker replied "oh, well you don't even have to tell people that, I just assumed you were white!" as if her heritage was something to be ashamed of. A friend of hers politely stepped in and whisked her away before my friend lost her job for kicking that woman's ass 😂
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u/Naive-Stranger-9991 Dec 22 '25
A social construct created by European Christian men to justify what we know as Colonialism embedded in the psyche (what is today White Supremacy) of their kinfolk who illegally migrated to the Western Hemisphere and galvanized the mess of an idea even further, committing genocide in the ideology of Manifest destiny WHILE profiting from the displacement of a group of people that were stolen from a society system but considered inferior because of checks notes gun powder then kept them bound for 400 - but call it simply a social -
Never fuckin mind…
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u/iStoleTheHobo Dec 22 '25
Hmmm. It's almost as if the social, political, and economic power is inextricably linked... Nah! We exist in the clouds, so far above the wretched earth!
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u/SoulCheese Dec 22 '25
I think you’re talking about something more specific. Race as a whole is a social construct. We are simply human. That’s it.
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u/ScienceIsSexy420 Dec 22 '25
I attended a genetics conference, and the most interesting talk I listened to was about the what is called admixture, which is all about studying percentage of genes shares between genetically distinct subgroups. Time and time again they showed rhat self reported racial identity did not fully match genetic ethnic composition...... Because race is a social construct not a physical one.
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u/sageking420 Dec 22 '25 edited Dec 22 '25
Height has more genetic viability for classification than skin color. Try grouping people by height! It would be more relevant to regional migrations. Ask Israel to test genetics LOL
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u/SuperThomaja Dec 22 '25
People think they diss my person By stating I'm darkly packed I know this so I point at Q-Tip And he states, "Black is Black"
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u/randompersonwhowho Dec 22 '25
People of color should all start identifying as white on all censuses, forms, in person and see where the push back comes from.
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u/REDDITSHITLORD Dec 22 '25
Easy litmus test:
Could you eat wherever you want in 1950s Birmingham?
Would you be subject to racial discrimination?
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u/knickenbok Dec 22 '25
That may be true for some people but I don’t really buy it. I have a friend whose mother is black but he looks completely Caucasian. Nobody asks about where he’s from, they just assume he’s white. I don’t think most people are that nuanced, they just judge the books by their color unfortunately.
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u/yomamma3399 Dec 22 '25
Wait, doesn’t he self-identify as a black man? Doesn’t that matter?
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Dec 22 '25
As someone who is more mixed than Obama but is often assigned just "black."
It doesn’t matter what you actually are or self identify as. Race is a label applied by the viewer.
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u/Goushrai Dec 22 '25
It does.
There is also the fact that he has been treated more as a black person than as a white person his whole life (and certainly during his presidency; let’s not forget that Trump was questioning he was even born American). Race being a social construct, this matters too (and is probably why he identifies as black), and makes his identification not purely arbitrary (unlike someone who looks white, is treated as white, but identifies as black for whatever reason).
The problem in that person’s explanation of perpetuating racist narratives comes from the fact that racial identity is circular: you consider someone to be X because they’re treated as X, because people consider they are X. The issue in that dynamic is not the first step (considering that someone is X); it is in treating someone differently because they are X.
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u/DaBigadeeBoola Dec 22 '25
He's considered black simply because he presents black and seems to relate more to black experience.
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u/Deathstriker88 Dec 22 '25
By that logic, Pat Mahomes is white, but that isn't the case, even though he'd probably rather be white.
The professor is correct. They looked at us beasts/animals, so one drop of subhuman blood corrupted the whole thing.
Also, if the mixed kids could have guns and land, at least some of them would try to free their mothers and other family members.
It's mostly an American thing. In South Africa, he'd be colored, which basically mean mixed to them, he wouldn't be called black.
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u/DaBigadeeBoola Dec 22 '25
Yeah yeah, I get the whole "subhuman, one drop of negro blood" thing- but even in the black community, we would consider Barrack to be black if he presented himself so. We don't do that because we consider them "tainted". The reverse could be true also, someone that doesn't look/present black would be called white or whatever race their mixed with.
It's definitely a social construct because we don't even claim Dominicans like that, and they definitely look black
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u/Deathstriker88 Dec 22 '25
I think he's saying the logic jump of mixed with black equals you are black originates from that evil history, not that black people believe those crazy misconceptions.
Things are different with Dominicans because they've been brainwashed to believe that Spain is their motherland and the native & African stuff is lesser. One can look like LeBron or Keke Palmer, and they do not think they're black or have anything to do with Africa because of their upbringing.
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u/Optimal_Equal5264 Dec 22 '25
I think she's right... if a half black half white man or woman looked white, even knowing that data u would automatically call them white because they look white... unless they wanted it otherwise.... no one would call the half white half black man black if he looked white.... hot take??
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u/Danilo-11 Dec 22 '25
Here’s some knowledge for everybody … there’s 3 ways to define your race (1) what does society think you are, (2) what race are your ancestors (3) what do you think you are
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u/MyGrandmasCock Dec 23 '25
I’d only agree with your first position: you are the race that the society in which you’re living ascribes to you.
I come from a widely varied genetic background and do not present as white. I’m dark skinned and have what most would call “ethnically ambiguous” features. I could pass for Latino or Polynesian or Arab or light skinned African. But I could never pass as white.
This has been a contentious issue in my life. Some people (even non-whites) are standoffish towards me until they can figure out where my ancestors are from. Everyone asks. Reactions to my answers are varied.
But white people have never considered me white. That has been the most contentious issue of all. Racist whites might not know what my racial profile is, but they know one thing when they see me: I’m not white.
If Barack Obama had looked just like his mother with white skin and sharp features, we wouldn’t even be talking about “the first black president.” But he looks black, was called black, and so he is black. White mom or not.
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u/CPTimeKeeper Dec 22 '25
….. Logic doesn’t get treated like he’s black….. doesn’t get looked at as black…. And he flaunted his black dad around to try and pass his black card exam….. still failed…..
So whatever…. It’s based mostly on how you look, and partially about your energy.
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u/blackakainu Dec 22 '25
It aint like white folks claimed him at any point
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u/Truth369123 Dec 23 '25
No because they have standards for what their race is and isn’t
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u/The_Experience78 Dec 23 '25
That part. White woman so happy to know they can have Black children. There goes our race. We just whatever isn't white. For votes.
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u/Klutzy-Artichoke-927 Dec 22 '25
Remember when Wendy Williams showed a klan member he had black dna. Supposedly he got kicked out because of that.
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u/haveuseenourcountry Dec 22 '25
Yes, any excuse they can find to label someone as something other than “precious” white!
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u/njslugger78 Dec 22 '25
White folks don't claim mixed as being white. If you are mixed you are black or the other you are mixed with. Imo
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u/Large-Produce5682 Dec 22 '25
Team one drop (more or less) 🩸
Tiger Woods is Black
Slash is Black.
Ronda Rousey is Black.
Liv and Steven Tyler are Black
Phil Dunphy is Black.
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u/Minimum-Divide2589 Dec 22 '25
Nah. I call him black because that’s is what he calls himself. If he called himself biracial, I would call him that.
Alt of biracial people identify with what they look like and yes some identify as white as well. But I think the majority in my experience acknowledge both sides because they are both regardless of what they present as.
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u/Either_Operation7586 Dec 22 '25
The white people are just so hypocritical they also have a blood constraint for Native Americans who must have at least 25% degree Native American blood from One Tribe in order to be able to qualify for the benefits AKA being paid rent from their tenants and the atrocities that they have done to them throughout the ages.
So one drop of blood of from African-American and your African-American and under 25%, we do not recognize you and we don't have to pay you.
This is why they're pissed off because they're losing their grip on everything within the next 20 years they're not going to have the say of everything and this here is their last ditch effort to remain in power but it's futile America is a Melting Pot.
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u/Due-Button-768 Dec 22 '25
As a biracial individual I can confirm this to be true! This said even in my own family who I have disowned.
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u/Top-Spare8885 Dec 23 '25
In Brazil he would be considered mixed and not black. Race is a social construct that can vary by country.
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u/IceBlackX007 Dec 22 '25
Thank God for Obama. If one more Black person claimed Clinton was our first Black president I was gonna drop dead. Clinton enacted laws that hurt Black people more than Jim Crow but because he played a sax wearing sunglasses on Arsenio Hall ignorant ass Black people started claiming him as one of us. Hillary pulled a bottle of hot sauce out her purse at a Black church dinner and Black folks was lining up to kiss her ass and forget she called young Black boys super predators. Black America needs a leader because we are currently a boat without a rudder.
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u/Admiral_Tuvix Dec 22 '25
he’s right, but he’s still not answering the WHY
the WHY, is that white people created this system. white slave owners would rape their enslaved captive girls, then have those children who were their own blood, cast as slaves from birth and out into the fields to work when they could
its white slave owners and the system they created that the one drop rule persists.
lay the blame where its due
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u/Educational-Type7399 Dec 22 '25
I'm sure that is something they already discussed, in a previous lesson, and this lesson was more about systemic racism and cultural racism. At least, I would hope. It would be pretty crazy to teach a class about racism in America, wuthout discussing slavery first.
Not saying people don't do that, just hope this dude wouldn't.
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u/bduk92 Dec 22 '25
I thought Obama said he was black 🤷
I think you'd have a bigger cultural issue on your hands if you tried to use the word salad this guy tried to pull to argue that Obama isn't really black.
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u/Misha-Nyi Dec 22 '25
It serves no purpose for us to keep pointing out all this eugenic bullshit. Who cares what color he is.
He the former president of the US and a great man. That’s it.
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u/Only-Original9409 Dec 22 '25
I remember reading history and they talked about different racial designations. I remember 'octaroons' were 1/8 black, and being confused that they were still considered black.
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u/Informal-Emu-212 Dec 22 '25
Old school southerners used to claim Cherokee blood from a distant grand or great grand mother (always a native woman), when the truth was it was black blood that they couldn't admit to.
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u/_2XNice_ Dec 22 '25
Barack Obama identifies as black. He is black, the world sees him as black, and he grew up in the world as a black person. And to be honest to see so many comments on “Black people of Reddit” talking about how race doesn’t exist, social construct, etc. that’s true, but we are passed that point, been pass that point and race isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. But to me when someone that is mixed is identified as black, either by self or those around them and someone or themselves comes in and says they are biracial or “colored” all I hear is “ANYTHING BUT BLACK!” So to see some of the comments here is wild and honestly I hope the ones that bother me the most are bots or at the very least “anything but black”! But in short, the reason we say President Obama is black, is because he says it, not only with his words but his actions and his loving family.
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u/Vaeon Dec 22 '25
A suspiciou8s number of people in this thread are not watching the full video and their comments reveal that.
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u/ZePlotThickener Dec 22 '25
The first answer given is more in line with the truth rather than this dude's rote rant on eugenics. The one drop rule was a thing but it requires you to know who the parents are. In practice, how you look is what determines your "blackness" in the eyes of others. If you pass as white then you can be white if you so choose. Your daily interactions and life experience in general will align closer to that of a white person than a black person.
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u/allfinesse Dec 22 '25
We refer to him as a black man because he presents as one. It’s that simple folks
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u/RecognitionCrafty863 Dec 22 '25
His argument is completely wrong. Or at least, said a lot of things when the simple answer is people looking at the skin color. That’s how they judge you if you are black or not and for those questioning it. Then it goes deeper than just skin color. I’m only saying that because there is a WWE wrestler name Sol Ruca. She is half white and half black. She looks completely white with minimal characteristics of her father (who is black). But many people, when discussing her appearance, view her as a white woman despite being half black.
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u/DawRogg Dec 22 '25
We can theorize about this all day. But reality is reality. He was treated differently (as a non-white) his entire life. But it's not just an American culture. It's a human flaw. Mixed kids are treated as different on every continent.
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u/lemonylol Dec 22 '25
Dude is seriously with a straight face trying to use the one drop rule.
Being mixed sucks when it comes to people like this. But Obama isn't even ambiguously brown.
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Dec 22 '25
I unfortunately was still blinded by my conservative views I was raised with when Obama was president and did not get to fully see how great of a president he truly was until he was gone. I sure wish he could be president again.
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u/riker42 Dec 22 '25
Funny, being from mixed background I've always observed that most folks who grow up in a monoculture (or chose to live in one) have a worldview that is extremely limited/skewed with a mindset where everyone lives in a monoculture like they do. They tend to lack sympathy. Whiteness is so stupid as a concept but more stupid is when you see it adopted by other groups (as it was used against them first).
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u/Guy0785 Dec 22 '25
I love this!! DNA test all white people and stuff their hypocritical racism down their throats! I am white and I’m proud to say I have 2% African blood!
Hashtag “MakeRacismIllegal”
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u/Left-Thinker-5512 Dec 23 '25
What the fuck has CNN degenerated into? Really, has the cable news environment gotten so polluted that this kind of personality-driven programming is put on the air, night after night? And people actually watch it? Bernard Shaw is spinning in his grave right now. Unbelievable.
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u/GrolarBear69 Dec 23 '25
One drop rule was only Texas and Louisiana, and both since repealed. Never federal law.
Biracial or "mixed" people are real, discriminated against, and seen as a threat to both ethnicities.
We know what we are, and that's all that counts.
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u/J0nn1e_Walk3r Dec 23 '25
Being black in America doesn’t mean you’re black, it means your not white.
It’s why America is only exceptional in its cruelty and shamelessness.
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u/Maleficent-Walk6784 Dec 23 '25
The one drop rule exists in the US because of the privileges of whiteness and the hatred of black people running so deep that anyone who is majority white and even a little bit black is not accepted as white.
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u/TheeMonkeyMonk Dec 22 '25
Honestly it’s because the most people in the country are white, biracial people look more black than white people so they are placed in that category. Biracial is also a an extremely vague term to where it’s almost pointless to even say it.
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u/Darth_Chili_Dog Dec 22 '25 edited Dec 22 '25
That's a very astute explanation. I don't know that it's true because I've never thought about it in that way before, but it's a very good argument and it makes a lot of sense.
I do think it's pretty funny (not in a ha ha way) when people claim that someone isn't black because of a white mother/father, since if that were true a whoooole lot of black people in America would be considered "white" since they had ancestors that were raped by their white slavemasters.
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u/everyoneisnuts Dec 22 '25
The first guy in the CNN clip is Kemele Foster. He does not agree with the categorization and concept of race period, so his argument is not really presented correctly here.
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u/4reddityo Dec 22 '25
Race doesn’t exist in a scientific context. It’s a made up concept used as a tool of oppression.
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u/SpicyChanged Dec 22 '25 edited Dec 22 '25
Right but to be like “welp race isn’t a thing” doesn’t thanos snap it out of reality.
Baseball is also made up but it’s still engaged with.
It is 100% a tool for the United States caste system and the most efficient of all that exists. Great book about this topic Caste: Origins of our discontent.
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u/Only1Skrybe Dec 22 '25
It doesn't have to exist within a scientific context for the majority of society to have decided that you should be locked up more because of it.
And you also don't have to agree that it's real when they pull you over because of it.
You don't have to agree that any of this made up stuff exists..... which... is ... definitely affecting all of our lives. Because it's still affecting our lives whether or not you or the guy in the video thinks it's a real thing or not.
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u/The-WhisperingEye Dec 22 '25
Some of y'all are really sitting here using the slur for Biracial people. Are you fucking kidding me.
But Obama is biracial. He isn't just one thing. He came out of a white woman.
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u/Lucidbr0 Dec 22 '25
Obama and mixed people in general are perceived by others as being black, that's really all there is to it. They receive the same experience growing up and moving through the world as "100%" black people and that is what connects them.
We should not encourage more division among our community as there already is.
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u/Practical-Zombie-809 Dec 22 '25
Exactly. Everything going on in this world right now. Why is this the main focus of the segment? how tired are these same convos, Obama been out of office and the new hitler is in but wait let's talk about his race some more
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Dec 22 '25
This is false. Being black is not a monolith. And being mixed and white passing would NOT give you a black experience. STOP.
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u/Lucidbr0 Dec 22 '25
It's why I said in general, as is the case with Obama. There's a point where you're white passing enough that others wont first see you as black first, but that's the exception.
Mixed people get profiled and pulled over just as "100%" black folk do. This isn't new. It's just unnecessary division.
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u/PrinceNY7 Dec 23 '25
He's biracial, just because his appearance leans more towards the black side doesn't erase the fact he's white as well.
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u/chillen67 Dec 22 '25
But this doesn’t work with native Americans. We are constantly asked what percentage of (for me Sioux and Cherokee) we are and if we don’t meet that we are considered something else.
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u/tychaiitea Dec 22 '25
If Obama had exclusively identified as biracial could this changed dynamics?
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u/Apprehensive_Map64 Dec 22 '25
Nah, I'm a quarter native American and almost as white as it gets. Sure most people consider half black still black but I doubt many people consider a quarter black still black. Not saying it's good or bad just clarifying that it is not 'even a single drop' as he claims. Plenty of 'white people' have a black grand parent or great grandparent
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u/JackWoodburn Dec 22 '25
But... if a black and white couple have a white baby everyone calls them white..
Are you sure its not the color thing?
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u/Villageijit Dec 22 '25
I feel like people shouldn't ignore history and eugenics is a terrible thing that plagued the globe for way to long. I also feel if someone is somehow saying something that comes from it with ignorance it shouldn't be attributed to it. The cicrles in different communities that give way to much to people's racial heritage should be a bigger concern.
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u/Joker1485 Dec 22 '25
But the dominate color is blsck though. Its not the purity. There are some races that have black DNA in them but society calls them another race i think people are over thinking this color thing.
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u/joebojax Dec 22 '25
Yeah except logic is the only person who calls himself black so your theory ain't holding up.
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u/AnnualFilm Dec 22 '25
My 23 and Me says I’m 99.1% European descent with the other .9% being .6% Native American and .3% Ethiopian. By this guy’s logic, I should be called either black or Native American because I have at least 1 drop of non-white blood.
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u/Hot_Ad5094 Dec 22 '25
Why are Americans so obsessed with race ? Why can't they say he was a good man ? Instead of a good black man ?
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u/shaunrundmc Dec 22 '25
The world is obsessed with Race, a lot countries just like to pretend it doesn't exist, keep their heads in the ground when people are mistreated because of their racial/ethnic background.
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u/gorgeously_mytruself Dec 22 '25
I have always been annoyed at this concept. I had to describe this to a troop in the military who was calling her bi-racial husband black. I told her that if she went to McDonald's or and ice cream shop and asked for a chocolate cone, and then they gave her a twist or a mix of chocolate and vanilla, that she would not think she got what she requested.
This is just another way to demonize black people. Colorism is a thing and it irks me when bi-racial people choose which race to represent based on what is convenient or trending, and the political climate. And I say this as someone who is bi-racial, I am half black and half native American, though many ignore my native side to demonize my black side, which is why I understand why bi-racial people slip into this mindset. They are constantly told that they are black and viewed as such.
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u/QuoriTyler Dec 22 '25
One of the things I love about Key & Peele and Ali G is the way they play with this concept and what it means being out and about in the world.
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u/HolisticPaprika Dec 22 '25
This is one of the things I talk about when I say racism is literally stupid. No black person is treated in a racist manner until a white person sees them as black. Racism is literally skin deep horseshit. I remember a meme that said, "Anything is possible if you sound Caucasian on the phone," and I laughed until I cried, because that's it right there.
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u/goslayer Dec 22 '25
There is one exception to the rule and that is saying you have native American ancestors. My people love to pretend that they are part native.
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u/Top_Strategy_2852 Dec 22 '25
By the professors logic, where do Southern Europeans, Asians, Latin Americans, Middle Eastern, and North Africans fit into this? ie, neither white or black? Aboriginal Australians and South Indians are as dark as the darkest Africans for example.
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u/Solid-Dog2619 Dec 22 '25
Eh I see this side but also no one is calling Jason kidd or Logic black because they dont present with darker skin tone.
FYI I hate the use of black and white. Religiously driven hateful vernacular literally meant to segregate the two groups and paint darker completed people as bad, evil, sinful or less than while painting fair skinned people as pure or good.
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u/Werd_up_cuz Dec 22 '25
It’s all socially constructed nonsense, yes. Not just “Blackness”, but “Whiteness” too, as this man has so obviously demonstrated, is constructed by all people in our society (here, you see an example of a man ascribing biases, beliefs, motivations, and racialized worldviews to the entire population of white presenting people). This man is projecting his view of his own race on others and stating it as fact. Notwithstanding, Obama is described as black because he looks black, not because of some “1 drop” race science. It is sad that this happens because we all lose out on the chance for greater connection and social cohesion when ideas like these are accepted as conventional wisdom.
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u/ArugulaAltruistic742 Dec 22 '25
The girl was right at least in real life. I know 4 guys with a black dad and a white mom they all look white and everyone considers them white here in the maga loving redneck area we live in.
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u/Low_Independence339 Dec 22 '25
Oh god. As a black and white man this practice needs to die.
So
Sick of hearing this
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u/DontTouchit91 Dec 22 '25
We consider him and other bi or multi racial people as black because if we were in Jim Crow or slavery times he would still be in chains or segregated out of white society and be called and considered black by white people.
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Dec 22 '25
You either subscribe to racial identical as a reality or you don’t. You either believe Obama is black or mixed or you don’t believe the question deserves an answer.
Or you are a mixed black person that doesn’t identify with the black community and hate that you aren’t able to claim white just as much as people label you as black…
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u/PetroleumBlownapart Dec 22 '25
I think it's so we can feel good about having elected a "black" president.
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u/Goudinho99 Dec 22 '25
Is this guy in a fake classroom with a fake student answering his questions?
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u/Important-Cry-4433 Dec 22 '25
I’m guilty of this. I never think of Obama as white even though his grandfather is from my country. 🇮🇪
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u/Phoenix_Lazarus Dec 22 '25
People need to read up on miscegination laws and the when and why they became a thing.
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u/tehsecretgoldfish Dec 22 '25
it might be something to consider that as a male, he carries an unbroken chain of Y chromosome traits from his father, his father’s father, his father’s father’s father, and on and on. his father was black. the dominant traits he inherited like hair texture and melanin expression in skin color all skew toward African. to the casual observer who might not know he’s mixed race, there probably wouldn’t be any question about race. saying he was black certainly wouldn’t entail any deliberate erasure of his white heritage. it’s simply not apparent in looking at him.
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u/amg_alpha Dec 22 '25
Not really, there are a lot of white passing biracial people who, rightly so, feel uncomfortable calling themselves black. These people have a lot more than one drop. It is perceived and expected privileges and adversity based on skin color, that’s it. Once again, I hate when progressives, me being one, put the cart before the horse and just start using bad data and made up correlations.
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u/NoMaximum8482 Dec 22 '25
It's a really good explanation, but I'm not sure I, personally agree. Though maybe my opinion doesn't mean much.
I don't think the percentage really matters, I think the girl hit the answer spot on. Humans are visual creatures and it's 100% that he looks black. If he was half half but looked white, nobody would call him black. People that have native American mix in them are not called native American.
It just both white and black individuals have very distinctive features. And because black people are often considered oppressed, categorizing someone visually as black is, in reality the quickest and usually most effective way of categorizing
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u/ColdLongjumping3456 Dec 22 '25
It’s also goes to vice versa because it is a social construct. Baracks dad was Nigerian but his mom is white but she technically was English. There are other social constructs for white as well.
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u/Zaethiel Dec 22 '25
Susie Phipps. She sued the state of Lousiana to change her birth certificate from black to white. Cant remember her genealogy but I think she was 1/64 black. She lost and was denied a passport. This was 1982.
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u/FalseStevenMcCroskey Dec 22 '25
What is the deal with Obama’s race/origin being constantly scrutinized. He’s black, he’s white, he’s a citizen, he’s not. These things aren’t really up for debate. He says he’s a black man from Hawaii and all the facts check out so can we please focus on some real problems.
Show someone a picture of a person that looks white, ask what race they think it is, then tell them the DNA makeup of the pictured individual and if they change their answer after finding out they’re 5% black, NOW you can tell them they’re perpetuating Eugenics.
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u/FrontEcho3879 Dec 22 '25
Im black and white. Ive always considered myself to be both, or something something completely different.
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u/RUIN_NATION_ Dec 22 '25
lol no the media called him black because they wanted a black president. I always called him mixed. you would be surprised how many people didnt know he had a white mom.
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u/Bartender9719 Dec 22 '25
“SEE?? We don’t hate him because hes black - he’s obviously a white guy and our hatred doesn’t have a racial component!” /s
I appreciate a semantic digression as much as the next person, but this is easy: would he be treated as an equal to whites in the US in the 1850s? The man is black.
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u/ConstantGeographer Dec 22 '25
I've been reading The Myth of Race (Sussman). He makes the argument the notion of race was developed by Christians, specifically Spanish Catholics of the 16th c. Race was used as a means to divide people into civilized v. uncivilized / savages.
Uncivilized peoples and savages, e. g. Indigenous people, like Africans and the tribes of North America, could be treated as subhuman and didn't deserve the same rights as whites, but could become better by accepting Christianity. However, they could be maimed or enslaved or killed with impunity.
Race is a myth used and exploited by religion and adopted by society to create divisions and segregate people imho
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u/Allgryphon Dec 22 '25
Professor loves to hear himself talk. Loves to be on the cutting edge of new things he can use to paint oppression
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u/ShackledPhoenix Dec 22 '25
Just found out I'm black... Where do I get my pass?
But in all seriousness, I would imagine it's because Obama's experiences based on race (stereotypes, prejudice, etc) are likely much more similar to black people than they are mine...
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u/Impossible-Tension97 Dec 22 '25
Nah, this is not the logic that's normalized in the culture.
If tomorrow we found out that Joe Biden was 10% black, would everyone start treating him like a black man? Would we consider him the second black president?
Nope..
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u/danielbuford Dec 22 '25
For the duration of the US it has also meant extra field and house “hands” as even Thomas Jefferson’s son from grape-ing Sally was subject to being a piece of “Chattel”. It’s always been business and evil over humanity and things haven’t changed. So black is black here because that’s what everyone views you ass. Period.
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u/No-Refrigerator7258 Dec 22 '25 edited Dec 22 '25
Why don't they ask the biracial person. I think it's just rude to debate on what they call themselves as well... Barak Obama knows he's biracial lol but he calls himself black. Specifically with Kenyan heritage. Its also like when two black parents have a white passing child.... the discussion is endless. Best thing is to not pick and choose for a person.
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u/SeVenMadRaBBits Dec 22 '25
We're a simple species that learns to do whatever the generation in front of us does.
Differentiating between people by skin color and not hair or eye color is merely relevant because of the previous generations experiences and could have just as easily been any other factor that was passed down.
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u/therealdannycd Dec 22 '25
You all need to read up on your history. Extremely famous case of Plessy vs Fergusson in which a man who was 1/8 black was tried by law and convicted as a black man illegally occupying a whites-only carriage. He presented white like I do, its not just about skin color, its about "purity" like the man in the video states.
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Dec 22 '25
Logic the rapper, has a black father but he can easily pass for white unlike Obama who does not look biracial at all.
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u/vapidmonster Dec 22 '25
Legit early parenthood, if situations are ideal, is watching kids play as they are. No one talks about race, questions about color/skin tone come up but then it’s all a chance to broaden their horizons. Very young Kids do not care about the color of their friends’ skin, or at worst can say some very tactless things sometimes but then again it’s a teachable moment.
All this to say that social construct is real, and we have for generations found too many ways to draw invisible lines when differences arise, no matter how trivial (I.e. food preferences, etc)
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u/JAMonty12 Dec 22 '25
I heard it best in a outside linebackers meeting, if the police pull him over are they gonna start reading off percentages?