Letters to the Editor
iowademocrat
Published Letters: 27 Editor's Choice: 6
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Under My Skin
[Read the article: Multiracial man]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If this article was written with a subtle sly irony, then it is understandable. If it was written to point out how complicated the multiracial identity of Barack Obama is, then, frankly, it isn't.
Either a person has a strong sense of his or her own identity, or doesn't. Developing and understanding one's self is actually part of growing up in general. That it can take a long time is no great discovery.
But, it is nearly absurd to write seriously about Barack Obama in this context, since the answers to any questions about his view of himself and his place in the world are contained in his books. Besides, his comfort and ease with himself is evident to anyone who has ever shaken hands with him, and it's all that really needs to be noted.
If he understands himself as Black, that's fine with me, but I don't worry about it one way or another. Has anybody ever seriously wondered whether Barack Obama needs to give a speech equivalent to the Romney or Kennedy "religion" speeches, explaining how his "Blackness" won't overly affect his decision making as President? No! Of course not. It's obvious that his agenda is transformative in a way that is clearly beyond race.
All of the issues presented in this article are seriously discussed in the US, and the confusion of one's racial identity is of concern to the expanding number of multiethnic individuals and to others in America, but these concerns are irrelevant to those who have come to terms with themselves. At that point the subject becomes an academic exercise.
This is not to say that racial issues in society aren't worth studying - they surely are - but, to saddle someone like Barack Obama, who is so clearly self-aware, and so completely at ease in his skin, with the burden of all of society's racial folly is not fair to him, nor is it productive at this moment in time. As history, it may become instructive, but right now, it's beside the point.
He's trying to win the Presidency. What the voters think of him is all that counts now.