Much mud has been slung at President Obama since he walked into the press room last Friday and spoke extemporaneously about growing up black in America. Some folks said too little too late. Other people said that he was race baiting. Then there are people like me who think what he said was just right.
Much goes in to our own identities. We start with our race, our gender, where we live, our region, our parents, and our physical attributes. Not much changes with those identifiers unless we move or get adopted. Even then, our genetic code does not change. Our place in time is also important and that does not change.
Yet, I feel some are attempting to deny the president his birthright—that being who he is as a bi-racial man. For starters, I really don’t think white folks get to evaluate this. How can I possibly address what it’s like to be a bi-racial man as a white woman? I can’t. Nothing in my DNA makeup gives me that right.
For many years, well in to my lifetime, your main identity depended on your race. One’s race determined where you went to school, where you could eat, where you could go to the bathroom, where you could even get a drink of water, whether you could vote, where you could sit in public establishments and on public transportation.
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