{"id":14,"date":"2009-02-09T01:16:09","date_gmt":"2009-02-09T06:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dannybyers.com\/blog\/?p=14"},"modified":"2011-06-08T19:38:46","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T00:38:46","slug":"are-you-black-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dannybyers.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/are-you-black-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you black enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Recently, I was forwarded an article <\/a> from a friend discussing President Obama’s heritage.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t the usual article one could dismiss with ease when it comes to<\/div>\n
\"Aaron
Aaron McGruder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

questioning the President’s blackness, as this one involved Aaron McGruder, the creator of the cartoon The Boondocks<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 The Boondocks, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the comic, is\u00c2\u00a0a highly satirical\u00c2\u00a0 and controversial cartoon that often lampoons popular African-American culture as well as current events and political topics.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the article, Aaron stated that he doesn’t view President Obama as a “black man” in the traditional sense simply because he was born to an African immigrant, therefore not making\u00c2\u00a0Obama a descendant of slaves.<\/div>\n
\n
“Barack is the son of an immigrant, not the descendant of slaves. It’s like comparing a half-Japanese man to the oppressed Chinese who built the American railroads. Yes, they are both Asian, but it is not an honest or accurate comparison. We all share the common experiences of being Black in America today – we do not all share a common history. A history that in part makes us who we are – and in some cases (as with the psychological damage that still lingers from slavery) holds us back. These are not, I believe, insignificant distinctions.”\u00c2\u00a0 — Aaron McGruder<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
This comment caught me off guard because I had never really put any thought into\u00c2\u00a0the reason of what makes a black person in America, well, black.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0Is it simply the fact that we are descendants of slaves that makes our plight unique?<\/div>\n
Surely,\u00c2\u00a0other black people\u00c2\u00a0that come to this country\u00c2\u00a0know what it’s like to be black in America.\u00c2\u00a0 Just ask Amadou Diallo\u00c2\u00a0or Abner Louima what their crimes where besides their color.<\/div>\n
Should black Americans feel any different\u00c2\u00a0from President Obama or Hakeem Olajuwan or Dikembe Mutumbo because these African-Americans\u00c2\u00a0actually know where their families\u00c2\u00a0are from in Africa and they weren’t born of slaves?<\/div>\n
\n
\"Henry
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Or better yet, what about African-Americans that have done the due diligence and were able to trace their slave ancestors back to tribes in Africa ala Henry Louis Gates, Jr.<\/a> ?\u00c2\u00a0 Should these people no longer be considered “black” by American society standards simply because their ancestral history no longer\u00c2\u00a0begins on the shores of American slavery?<\/div>\n
After careful thought of this question, I’m afraid I side with Aaron McGruder on this issue of blackness.\u00c2\u00a0 Obviously, it’s not to say that President Obama or other “black” immigrants aren’t black people.\u00c2\u00a0 Surely they have felt the hatred of racism and stereotypes at some point or another in this country.\u00c2\u00a0 However, what they own as well as\u00c2\u00a0every other race of people in this country, indigineous or immigrant, is a sense of belonging and a knowing of who they are and where their families hail.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The rest of us… well we’re just in the black.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, I was forwarded an article from a friend discussing President Obama’s heritage.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t the usual article one could dismiss with ease when it [more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[16,4,17,15],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-uncategorized","tag-aaron-mcgruder","tag-barack-obama","tag-henry-louis-gates-jr","tag-the-boondocks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dannybyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dannybyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dannybyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dannybyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dannybyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/dannybyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108,"href":"https:\/\/dannybyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions\/108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dannybyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dannybyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dannybyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dannybyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}