Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawai'i in 1961. Hawai'i has never even a meager black population and never took part in 'African' slavery or Jim Crow laws. His parents were a Kenyan-exchange student at the University of Hawai'i and a female student from Kansas. His father stayed on the scene for two years and then split. His mother later remarried to an Indonesian-exchange student (are we noticing a pattern yet)? The Indonesian step-father moved the family to Indonesia. At the age of 10 he moved back to Honolulu to live with his maternal (mid-western, white) grandparents. He didn't go to a Historically Black College, he went to Columbia and Harvard. None of that roots him Black American history, heritage, culture, or experience.
These were his formative years, influences, and impressions. Growing up mulatto in Hawai'i with an absentee African (not African-American) father and a strong white family does not make him any part of the African-American experience.
When Gov. Bobby Jindal was running for office in Louisiana there were newspapers that reported him as 'the first African-American candidate to be seriously considered for governor'. Bobby Jindal is Indian-American!!! And I don't mean Cherokee or Sioux, I mean from India (where his parents moved here from). I would say the same thing to Barack Obama as I would say to Bobby Jindal...skin color doesn't make you what I am. The only difference is this, Bobby Jindal never claimed to be me. These days Bobby Jindal isn't confused for me either, it's established that he's of Indian stock.
Now don't misunderstand me, I take nothing away from his accomplishments, his eloquence, his intelligence, or his charisma. He is obviously very intelligent (judging by his education at Columbia and Harvard). He is obviously very eloquent. He obviously has a very strong family (on his mother's side). What white, Kansas family do you know would readily support their daughter having children by an African (who left her) and an Indonesian (who left her) and raise the children themselves, while moving to Hawai'i? He obviously had family with money...Hawai'i isn't cheap, Columbia isn't cheap, Harvard isn't cheap. Aside from his not having an attending father, he was well setup and good for him. Even being well setup, he still admittedly got hooked on drugs and alcohol...ok, he's American...hell, he's damn near a Kennedy! If not for having married a chocolate Black lady and having children, it'd be hard to tell he was "African-American" at all. I know white sun-worshippers who are darker than him.
He is not what I am. To him Roots has as much depth and meaning as Evita has to people in Kenya. He is not the same as me and it's exhausting having people try to force him down my throat. I don't feel compelled to vote for him or even like him because of his ethnicity. Ethnically, we have about as much in common as I do with Joe Biden. If or when you hear me say "I can't wait to see a Black president" it should be interpreted as follows..."I can't wait for the progeny of the historically subjected peoples (black and brown) of THIS land to ascend to the highest office in our government."
No high-yellow mulatto with an absentee African namesake father and white family who grew up in a part of the country that wasn't even part of the country during slavery can claim that.
Would it be nice to see a non-white President? Sure. It would be nice to see a non-male president too, but that won't happen this election. It may be nice to see a non-male vice-president but that remains to be seen. For me though, don't ask me if I'm gonna vote "the brotha" into office or some shit like that...we ain't brothas like that. As for the election, I'm just hoping one of these two will step up and say something that will actually help this country. No matter who wins this election, I'll still keep looking out for the first BLACK president.
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