The President Is Black?

[kpete]

[Pryderi]

1. Is this a Colbert sketch?

[Pirate Smile]

2. LOL. He is Hawaiian.

:D

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. what I heard was his mother is Irish, making him black Irish.

Naturally we Irish have to stick together..........

[Pirate Smile]

4. The Irish do claim him, of course.

[Pirate Smile]

5. dupe

[Hekate]

7. Of course we knew he was O'Bama quite some time ago, didn't we?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EADUQWKoVek

[w8liftinglady]

11. LOL!

[XemaSab]

20. My mom went on a tour of Ireland with one of the boys from the Starry Plough

back in the day.

Every town, they'd go into a pub. He'd go in the back and meet with some local fellows, then he'd come out and they'd be on their way.

It was only years after the fact that me mum went "OH! I GET IT!" :D

[NYC_SKP]

6. well...

Thanks to zulchzulu:



:P

[MichiganVote]

8. Seems the media just figured it out too.

[doc03]

9. I really don't understand why what Harry Reid

said was so offensive. I saw Liz Cheney on TV this morning and she was really making a big deal over it calling for his head, according to her if he was a Republican he would be practicly hanged in public. I live in and area that is like 99% white and I really don't see what is so offencive in saying someone is a Negro. Isn't that the correct name for the race, like caucasian or oriental? What about the United Negro College Fund? Why haven't they changed their name if that is so offencive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Negro_College_Fund

[blondeatlast]

10. This thread might help. When the blathering RW are all talking about the same thing,

you know they are hiding something.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7436832

[EFerrari]

14. Oriental isn't a race either. And to clear things up

what Reid said was offensive because it implied that being a "Negro" might be an impediment to being a president.

[doc03]

15. Well didn't most people think 2 years ago that being a

black might be an impediment to being elected President? I have seen blacks themselves on talk shows many times say that lighter skinned blacks have a better chance of being successful in this country even among their own race. I must admit I live in an area with very few blacks and honestly didn't know the word Negro was in any way offensive. The other n word yes but negro no I didn't. As a matter of fact when I was a kid I thought it was offensive to call a Negro, African American or black person "black". I think this is just a ridiculous argument, making a mountain out of a mole hill.

My American Heritage Dictionary says:
Negro: A person of the negroid ethnic division of the human species.
Caucasian: A member of the Caucasoid ethnic division of the human species.
Oriental: A member of the peoples native to the orient.

The first time I ever heard of this was a couple days ago when people went off on negro being on the census form. I don't take offence if they have caucasian on a form, that is more descriptive of the race than white. A caucasian persons skin color can range from pale to even darker than some people we call black. White would be more offensive to me, I'm nowhere near white.

[EFerrari]

19. You know, when you hurt someone's feelings unintentionally,

they're still hurt.

And as a leader of the Senate, Harry Reid should have known better. That you don't know better is one thing and understandable. That in his position he doesn't know better is unacceptable. He was right to apologize and hopefully we can move on from there.

[kayla9170]

24. K & R Your Reply.........

For common sense on this subject.......... :)

[XemaSab]

22. I'm white as a sheet

and my people come from NOWHERE near the Caucuses. :D

[Hekate]

16. dupe delete

[Hekate]

17. Well, in fact it always was an impediment until Barack Obama made it not be one.

That is, if I recall the last 6 decades of my life correctly.

But in the meantime, the lingo changed several times. I grew up among many thousands of Orientals who are now Asians.

Also, I apologize in advance if being reminded of this bit of linguistic and cultural history offends anyone else than I've already offended tonight.

Hekate

[EFerrari]

21. This has nothing to do with linguistic or cultural history.

This has to do with disrespect. The way you talk about other people is not "lingo", it's a social gesture. This isn't about political correctness, it's about common courtesy.

ETA, because it's late: Sorry, Hekate, I should have said, in my opinion.

[Hekate]

27. As I said in another thread, I've always tried to keep up. It is out of respect ...

... and courtesy.

It just doesn't erase the fact that Language Changes. The Notorious N-Word has ALWAYS been unacceptable, afaik. The newly-Other N-word used to be about as polite as it comes. "Colored" used to a polite Southernism (I didn't grow up anywhere near the South, but it always sounded like they were being polite), but one we did not use *at all* where I lived. Now my Asian/Latino/Black colleagues refer to "people of color" meaning *anyone* not white, as far as I can tell.

Tell me you want to be called an Italian Car. Okay. (That. Is. A. Joke. Based. on. your. name.)

And it is late, and I quit.

Hekate

[EFerrari]

29. Skip Gate's joke is that every time Jesse Jackson gets in trouble

he holds a press conference and renames black Americans. He says in by 2020, the term will be Neo Nubians.

lol

eta: And, btw, Ferrari is Italian for Smith! :rofl:

[Hekate]

30. ~*~

:hug:
TY for laughing.

Hekate

[EFerrari]

32. I have to lighten the h up.

Thanks for being so gracious. :hug:

[tblue]

18. I think he was saying Obama's more "electable" because he's "light."

I don't think Reid meant a dark-skinned person couldn't do the job. He was talking about what's "electable" or maybe, rather, "acceptable" to the broad American electorate. That's an arguable point. That's not a statement about Obama; that's about the American voters. As for the stuff about being "Negro" and using a dialect, well, that was just dumb. I know Sen. Reid apologized to every black person in his Rolodex and he feels like a monkey's ass, and I think that's punishment enough.

[EFerrari]

23. He apologized and we should move on, imho. n/t

[tblue]

31. Absolutely. He doesn't legislate like a racist,

and that's all that matters to me. Who doesn't say something insensitive or stupid once in a while? Even Obama did ("bitter"). I try hard but even I get busted by the PC police sometimes.

[EFerrari]

34. It would be hell living under that kind of magnifying glass, agreed.

And the thing is, because America has such a profoundly racist history, sorting out this stuff is really difficult, imho. And it's really easy for @ssholes like Liz Cheney to exploit a topic that decent people care about when she jumps on Reid for his remarks.

I seriously doubt Liz Cheney is any kind of a civil rights activist.

One thing though, I notice DU as a group has gotten much, much better at talking about race than it was five years ago when barely anyone wanted to acknowledge we had a problem, Houston. I love and respect that about DU.

:toast:

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. Because we as a society are trying to move AWAY from race

and scientifically RACE does not exist.

[dixiegrrrrl]

35. What Reid said was that Obama did not fit Reid's racist stereotype.

THAT is what was offensive.
Reid stated Obama was light skinned, and did not speak "dialect".
He essentially said " Obama doesn't look or talk like my idea of an African-American",
thereby holding up a stereotype to measure Obama by.

If you have trouble understanding what might offend someone, try using the same words
about, say, ...John McCain. Would anyone find it necessary to comment that McCain is light skinned and does not speak with a "dialect".?

[Toots]

36. It is offensive to Republicans only

Blacks are not getting even the slightest bit upset over it...Leave it to Republicans to be the judge over what offends blacks.. They are the experts after all.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[frazzled]

13. I have a funny story about that

When my daughter was in second grade (many years ago), she kept coming home during the month of February with little printed sheets each day about various famous African Americans and their place in history. She was just so excited about this--mostly, I think, because they never really had any "history" stories in second grade yet, and she found them terribly alluring. I said to her, "You like these stories, don't you. Aren't you lucky that Mrs. H. is your teacher?"
"Why am I lucky?" she asked. "Well, because she knows lots of stuff about this." "Why?" my daughter asked. "Well, because she is black," I responded. .... "Mrs. H. is black???" she exclaimed. And then she thought a while. "I guess I knew her husband was black, because he came to class, but I never realized she was!"

This child had been in the class for six months. It wasn't that Mrs. H. was so light skinned. It was because teachers, to a young child, are simply teachers: they are not black or white, they are not even people beyond the classroom, who might have a life. They are your teacher. She simply hadn't noticed before.

[EFerrari]

28. That's a great story. Kids -- that's where hope really comes from.

lol

[proteus_lives]

26. He's mixed.

[Forkboy]

33. You learn something new every day.