Originally posted by total newbie
Don't people understand after the Civil War how 100 years of "Jim Crow" policies affected his family?

Finally we can have a black man that fully embodies the struggle and triumph of black people in America.

ideas like this is what gives Barack Obama a bad taste in people's mouths.
Nobody likes to be called racist, or be told that they owe something to someone because of something that they never did.

Nobody alive today persecuted any of Obama's ancestors. Nobody owes Obama anything.

He's not black, he's half black.
Fortunate for him if his ancestors WERE brought across as slaves. Because he might otherwise be living in a shack in some dismal African nation instead of being rather rich and very powerful....
Sorry, unfair but couldn't help it. I'm just sick of the ancestors whine. Many nations can go back to a time of oppression. What counts is what people do in the here and now, not what happened to their great great great grand daddy. He has to earn our respect. Sheesh...
ps I do hope people didn't vote for Obama ON ACCOUNT OF HIS COLOUR?

[edit on 4-11-2009 by unicorn1]

Somebody please define "Black"...When I think of "Black" I think of someone with African American roots.

Federal law requires that to claim a minority status, you must be at least 1/8 of the descriptor or 12.5%.

Berry is 50% Caucasian from his mother's side. He is 43.75% Arabic, and 6.25% African Negro from his father's side.

His father was officially classified as "Arab African" by the Kenyan government.

Obama's ancestors were enslavers not slaves!

Phil

This post is complete bull#! Obama's family was never brought to America against their will! He has nothing in his background that has anything at all to do with the black struggle in America!

Obama is a pawn of the New World Order, just like Bush. He's hated so much because many people realise he's not going to deliver the change he promised and because some of his views are explicitly contrary to traditional American values. The fact that he has a black parent and is a "Democrat" doesn't change these facts.

Originally posted by elaine
I thought his family was still in Africa and that he had no slave ancestors.
Are you saying that we should love him because he is black and because blacks suffered after the Civil War?

I am not clear on what you mean.

If that is what he's saying, and I assume it is, it's a ridiculous argument.