SWe've previously gone over that he wasn't elected due to being black, but due to being more charismatic than his opponent. While it's certainly true that being black contributes to one's charisma stats, so does being young, being new, being unknown, being scholarly, being well-groomed and being well-supported by one's backers and the media.
Yet there's another problem here, one that nobody much bothers with, since it's so unimportant in so many ways. And so contentious in so many others. Because it involves precise imprecise language mixed with meaningless meaning. The issue about claiming he was elected because?
He's not black.
Not just "he's black" or "he's not black" End stop period halt, that's 100% all there is. Neither is false, but neither is true. Not in and of themselves as an absolute, they're not true or false.
That is to say, it's more precise to point out he's half black. Half Kenyan. Half Luo. Half African. Although we have already pointed out "everyone's DNA is African", so perhaps that's all a distinction with no difference.
Which is fine, because this is mostly about meaning and connotation of words and phrases, a linguistic matter, or perhaps even artistic, of images painted by word choice and presentation.
Because well, in a way, yes, he's black. But in that same exact way, yes, he's white. Unless you are differentiating between simply dark and not dark when it comes to skin color, and what does that say about anyone? Albino, native North American, native Australian, native African, native Asian, Native European. What does that tell us but nothing.
As always though, there are multiple levels of meaning to any phrase or term that essentially has no real informative value except what the preconceived notions from a social cultural language give to it. Which such things are enormously subjective and wholly rely upon context to explain. Yet far too often, the all-important context is not just left off, it's ruthlessly quashed from consideration, when all each participant has is their own opinion on what it means, Which is almost never a shared opinion, which means no real dialog can exist. Simply arguments, shouting matches and perhaps even fisticuffs. Literal or figurative or both.
In the fairly recent past, there was a horribly racist and exclusionary notion known as the One-drop rule. You can read about it yourself, and you can argue with the ideas of Langston Hughes, you can delve into how the rest of the world outside of the US deals with such things.
But the idea here is that in the US, black might more than likely give the listener the perception that the person is an American of African-American heritage that grew up in Chicago or Des Moines or Key Largo or Portland. One who has a heritage in the US that goes back generations and generations of other similar Americans, fully assimilated into the commonly-shared American culture. Not a person has just gotten off of an airplane from Zambia or Niger or Chad or Brazil or Madagascar or Cuba or England, whatever the race, ethnicity, or culture of the individual. .
In the case of Barack Obama, let's look at the info. He was born in Hawaii to a non-American fully African black man from Kenya and an American (essentially mostly British) white woman from Kansas. If one goes with the race of the father alone, then Obama is Kenyan, that is, African. Or if one goes with the mother, well, he's American or of European descent.
Or how about where Obama grew up. First Hawaii, then Indonesia, then Hawaii again. Then after High School, entering the mainland US. Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Cambridge. All that's well documented as to the environments and situations, but one might as well say the formative years were Hawaiian/Indonesian. In any case, it's not what one might think of as a typical American experience. It might not be exactly matching what most people might think of when considering what it's like to be black. Not that such things are any more homogeneous than saying "Mid-Western" or "Christian".
Tracing back the father's side is Kenyan though and through, Barack Sr, Hussein, Akumu For the mother, Dunham, Payne, Armour, McCurry, cheifly British, or Anglo-Saxon such as might be the case. . Yet what it boils down to is Nyanza Province and Kansas, essentially. Of limited use compared to the cities and households, the environment and culture a person finds themselves in. The situation, the people around them, the overall feeling of a place and what one experiences as one is growing up.
Everyone is unique, but there is such a thing as typical, and certain terms and phrases and expressions result in certain pre-conceived notions. Obviously these generalizations are not "true" or "universal" but they do describe in a way an overall idea. If one is "a redneck" or has grown up "in a trailer park" for most people there are certain ideas that go along with such things, inexact and rather meaningless for specifics though they are. And certainly not everyone in such situations will fit those prejudices that go along with it. Any more than coming from "the West Side" or from "the bad part of town" will always fit some exact way. Unfortunately people are apt to use such terms and think certain things about them.
Back to the subject though. When it comes down to things, in a perfect world where things are considered fairly and evenly, where the color of the skin doesn't matter and doesn't define who or what a person is. Where there's no claim and no blame. In that world, President Obama is just as equally white European as he is black African. In truth, it's the case in this world as well, regardless of how hard anyone fights to establish one as true and the other false, one as important and the other not, for whatever reason one might want to argue about it as if it really matters. Because when it comes down to it, we might as well define Barack Hussein Obama II as a male, a world traveler and world citizen, from a multi-cultural background, a graduate of Harvard Law School. An African-American in the literal sense. Even more simply, the current President of the United States of America.
As Dr. King said what will soon be 50 years ago. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by
the content of their character."
No comments:
Post a Comment