It's to the point where I spend more time pointing out the theories folks actually have put forward, rather than discussing what I think, just because it really sucks when folks who are supposed to be on your side say something ignorant.
Anyways, Legal Insurrection has a post opining on the over-use of the Birther label, and one of the commentators (?) came up with something I didn't think of:
What if Obama's dad's race wasn't listed as Black (or whatever)?
What if he identified as "Arab African"?
As the fellow points out:
So any discussion of birthplace or religion are red herrings at best and more likely active disinformation campaigns, I submit. The real thing he's trying to hide is the detonation of his self-identification as "black". Half-white, seven-sixteenths Arab, one-sixteenth black just doesn't support the propaganda he's put out there for himself.
5 comments:
wow, i didnt know you were back.
sorry for sleeping thru this.
i just have issue with his being 1/16 black. lol.
he's blacker than that.
not that it matters.
and 'arab' is an ethnic designation, not an racial one.
people in syria, or morrocco, are just as arab as those in iraq, but look very different.
Meh, I was hoping to have longer before I was posting again. -.-
Here, those of us who care enough to try to figure it would probably say he's more than that, and count his "Arab" ancestors as "Black Islamic" or some such.
We also group Chinese, Japanese and sometimes Filipino in the same group; sometimes Filipino, Samoan, etc are their own group.
If I understand it right, it's somewhat like calling a Scotsman "British." Even though she MARRIED someone who was English, my one-generation-from-Scotland grandmother considered her sons Scots.
the biggest problem we face in discussions of race is that we are using old assumptions in a modern context.
anthropologists have long ago stopped seeing races and instead place the distinction along breeding groups.
a somali and nigerian may be black to us, but outside of that, have little else genetically in common.
among africans, race is meaningless. its about ethnicity and tribal cultures. a white scot is just as much an outsider/insider in a black from the other side of the congo.
and they can tell, with just a glance at your facial features, that you are not one of them.
this is an interesting topic for me.
Isn't it interesting?
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