Swirlies, sound off about Obama!
Since Obama has put his hat in the ring to be the next President of the United States, pundits and journalists around the country have been asking questions like: What will Obama mean for this country? What do mixed-race people think about the way in which Obama identifies, racially? What do people think about the discussion that is taking place in this country around race?
We wanted some of our members to have the chance to speak out about these things, so we have created space on our website for Swirlies to discuss current events and topics that matter to our community (Note: While these opinions do not perfectly reflect the opinions of Swirl, we do think it is important to give our members a forum through which to voice theirs).
It’s time that we speak for ourselves and challenge some of the problematic conversations that have been taking place!
Here’s what we have to say about the issue of Obama and his identity:
We as The Others have finally arrived as Americans. The cultural dichotomy that dogged us is no longer hidden, or more importantly, make us less than Americans. The sense that the average citizen (i.e., white and living in the continental United States) would consider someone like me an American, much less presidential material, is astounding.
Teresita Hurtado:
I think it’s great that we have someone who is Mixed Race running for President but it does disturb me when people of all races ONLY refer Obama as a Black or African American candidate and then claim him as Their president or not Their president based on his skin tone. I wonder if voters would be treating his candidacy the same way if Obama was still both equally Black and White but “appeared” to be more White. I have a few friends that are Black and White but appear to “look” more White and they benefit from White privilege but are discriminated against by some members of the Black community because they are “too White looking.” I also question how voters would have treated Obama’s candidacy if he was married to a White woman. Would he have gone this far in the elections?
Shawn Chin:
Racism continues to thrive in every racially heterogeneous community and, since the United States is a racially heterogeneous country that was forged in slavery, we are no exception. The horribly unequal distribution of resources amongst our different racial demographics proves not only that here in the U.S. racism is still very real, but also that many people in our nation are not ready to talk about race. Obama and I both know this. We both understand if he frames our forefathers as human beings or anything other than saints he will be viewed as “unpatriotic” and compromise many valuable votes. We both understand if he mentions in addition to creating a great nation free from the tyranny of unfair British rule that George Washington also owned slaves he will significantly reduce the chance of becoming the next President. We both know this. And while he cannot talk about race I can. And I will. Obama is very special to me for many reasons. Most importantly, through his policies he represents my values both as a citizen of the United States of America and as a human being with incredible accuracy. But he and I also share a special and powerful advantage. It is not our race, but rather the perspective and insight we have gained because of our race. The rest of the world may not be ready to talk about this, but I am. And I will tell people that, like me, Obama is a bridge between two very different worlds. I will tell people that, like me, his very existence is a symbol of equality, tolerance and love. I will tell people that, like me, every time he looks in the mirror, he see sees hope. And I will vote for Obama because in a world filled with differences the advantage he gains from his multiracial background makes him a perfect fit for responsibly running the world’s most powerful nation, whether he says it or not.
Kimberly Major Delaney:
I’m excited that Barack Obama will be our next U.S. president because Obama’s upbringing will only be an advantage. He won’t be myopic in his thinking of where the U.S. fits in globally, not trying to colonize the rest of the world. And since most of the global community is non-White, I do believe we will garner more respect from the rest of the world. I am glad, as I am someone from a multiracial family married in an interracial marriage, to hear dialog throughout the country about race and people working toward an understanding of what that means in America, generally. The media continues to label Obama as African American when Obama is only 1/2 that – although it does not bother me how he chooses to define himself, the media continues to ignore what it means to be monoracial and what one’s experiences are when cultures and races are mixed.
Carolyn Duncan:
To me, Obama represents something more complicated than he appears. He appears to be a black man, and has run as such, because that is how he looks and how people perceive him. Yet to me, since he was raised by his mom in Hawaii, a white lady, I know that probably his personal identification was more of a struggle and/or complicated than just what his skin color is.
This is important to me because as a mixed-race person, I appear white. On the flip side, I have social privilege in a society still struggling with latent and not-so latent racism. Yet I am also a woman, and I am also a person that knows no matter how people perceive me, I’m not just “white.” This means that racism affects me, both in the way I internalized it growing up by receiving a silent message to favor the “white” part of me and ignore the other part of my identity, and the way I grapple with what it means to “pass” now. While I may get privilege that Obama certainly doesn’t get as a black man, on the flip side I am a “white looking” woman, so I identify with him because we both have apparent targeted statuses (woman for me, black for him) and also privileged statuses (white looking for me, male for him). There’s an intersection of race and gender that complicates both of our lives. Also, interestingly, although he is a person of color but actually biracial, his marriage and family is actually bi-racial as well as a result. This has a lot of meaning for me as someone who is also marrying my “apparent” color- white- but in reality creating a biracial family.
Finally, although he has not addressed his biracial status and how he has grappled with his identity in his campaigning (hard enough to be biracial in the first place, so I hardly disagree with him on avoiding that topic for now!), I am hoping that as such he can be a symbol of healing for our nation. Although he would be the first person of color to be president, he would also be someone who is half-white, someone who was raised by a white mother. And historically, our country was built on the slavery of people of color by European-Americans. I am reading “The Color of Water,” which is an African-American man’s tribute to his white mother, and I’m interested to see in how his actual (hopefully!) presidency Obama navigates the color issue drawing from his own experience and empathy.
Leah Werner:
As a biracial young adult in the United States, my initial reaction to Barack Obama running for President was enthusiasm and extreme excitement. It is an amazing feeling to be able to look at a Presidential nominee and see myself in him; to know that some of his identity struggles have been my identity struggles. Yet then I realize that the media does not see Barack Obama as the first biracial President, they see him as the first African-American President. What does that mean? Well it makes me question how far our society has come from the one-drop rule when individuals who had just 1/32of African ancestry were considered Black; or the hypo-descent rule where multiracial individuals where given the status of the minority or subordinate group. Those laws were enacted during the Slavery Era and Jim Crow Segregation, yet why in 2008 has our society forgotten that Barack Obama is half white and therefore biracial? While I personally am thrilled to see a biracial individual run for President, until the media recognizes Obama as a mixed-raced individual instead of identifying him as Black or African-American, I am uncertain about how much it will do for the mixed-race community.
The 100% Mixed Show:
A couple of Swirlies sent this video in, explaining their thoughts on Obama and his identity.
If you have something to say, email SwirlSpeaks@swirlinc.org!
