The article points out the basic irrationality of a lot of bigoted people, especially those who are 'knee-jerk' racists. I was at a bar once, and when Charles Barkley came on the TV, a guy sitting next to me said, "I hate that racist n*gger."

Towards the end of the article, the author used the word "Caucasian," which I wish would be retired, alongside "Negro" and "Oriental." It's part of a 19th century Eurocentric racial paradigm that has been completely disproven.

That anecdote about the couple informing a canvasser that they planned to vote for "the [n-word]" was the subject of a Keith Knight "K Chronicles" cartoon a week or so ago. Did Knight use a true incident, or did his joke get accidentally mixed in with true stories from the campaign trail?

"Even before the majority of Democrats decided that Obama was electable despite being the first openly black presidential candidate..."

What exactly is the difference between being "openly black" and being black?

I do get how his father was African. But his mother was white. Yeah, he has a dark complexion, I suppose. I'm voting for him because I think he's brilliant, but part of me wishes the first black president would be southern, dark and, yes, descended from slaves. This is the kind of African American I'd love to see rise to the highest office in the land. But Obama isn't any of these things. I doubt he's ever really experienced the kind of racism that this society can offer up; I'll bet he's not experienced the kind of racism that his wife or her family has. I think he's a brilliant thinker who gets what racism is all about; he will be a great president. But Obama probably doesn't ring the kind of bells in the "don't trend on me" confederate flag flying numbskulls that, say, Willie Brown does.

Make my funk the P-Funk

I want my funk un-cut

Make my funk the P-Funk

Don't want my funk stepped on

I want the bomb

I want the P-Funk

Don't want my funk stepped on

Make my funk the P-Funk

I want my funk un-cut

We interrupt this program so as to bring you this message

Do not attempt to adjust the dial

We have taken control of your set

We will return it to you as soon as you are groovy

"I still don't get how Obama is African American" -- This line amuses me because due to his unique background, Barrack Obama really is African-American, perhaps not in how the phrase has come to be used in the U.S. but in the fact that one of his parents was an African and the other an American. How much more genuinely African-American can you get. I suppose if he'd been born and raised in AFrica he'd be an American-African. Of course, he could also be referred to as a Kenyan-American. And why aren't white Americans referred to as European-Americans? Of course, it'd get even more confusing with someone who happens to be white but whose ancesters lived for several generations in Africa and who would thus be technically an African-American or perhaps a European-African-American. Eventually this all gets pretty silly. Really, we're all humans, and if you go back far enough, all of us in the North & South America are "African-Americans" no matter what our skin color.

"What exactly is the difference between being "openly black" and being black?"

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He was probably referring to Bill Clinton, the country's "first black President."....lol

it was my knee-jerk liberalism that made me type "African American."

..."bigots" who may dislike african americans as a group, but deal quite fairly and rationally with african americans as individuals in their daily lives....iow, treat them as individuals. I see this every day. They will throw the "n-word" around continually, but who then deal with individuals with relative respect.

As George Carlin put it, people aren't usually described as "openly black." Except maybe James Brown, or Farrakhan. Colin Powell, on the other hand, is "openly white." He just "happens to be" black.

Miss ya George...

I think that the thing is that while Obama's ancestry is not the same as that of black Americans whose ancestors were slaves, and while his upbringing exposed him to a number of different cultural influences... it's really not a foregone conclusion that "he's [n]ever really experienced the kind of racism that this society can offer up; I'll bet he's not experienced the kind of racism that his wife or her family has".

When dark-skinned people are discriminated against or subjected to racism, those who are victimizing them DON'T stop to ask about their parentage, or where they were raised. They see darker skin, and make an assumption, and that's that. This happens for the same reason that there are Latin Americans out there who have been targeted because observers assumed they were Muslim; and for the same reason that no matter how successful, "well-spoken", and famous a black man might be, he is still in the same danger as any other black man of being subjected to police brutality (pulled over for "driving while black", for example), or to casual racism on the part of others in numerous situations.

It may be true that Obama has not exactly lived "the American black experience", but... it's also important to avoid over-generalizations like the notion that there is any one typical "American black experience" (or to engage in the subtle racism of deciding that one particular type of "black experience" is "more authentic" than some others).

Biracial children also experience types of discrimination that others don't, so don't imagine that his having a white mother was something that was always a positive, or that it somehow "protected" him against types of discrimination. Biracial children have their own experiences, which often includes forms of rejection from both races -- both whites and blacks might disparage his mother for her choices. A biracial child may spend a great deal of time being "not black enough" for some American blacks, but never accepted as "white" by whites, either. It's not as if being half-white makes a biracial child accepted by all whites in ways that "regular" American blacks aren't -- rather, many whites will react strongly against the idea of miscegenation. (Thankfully, I think that is fading, but it was still a hot issue when he was a child.)

You're right that Barack Obama's experience won't have been exactly like that of his wife and her family. But the point is that their experience isn't necessarily "worse" and thus "more authentic", than his. I expect he's experienced plenty of "real racism".

I also think you're right, though, that the symbolic importance of a black American with slave ancestors ascending to the presidency would be a little bit different. I'm not sure if I'd say it would be "better", though I agree it would be important. I think that the possible ascendency of a biracial man, whose skin color has led him to be treated in the same way as black Americans of different ancestries, is very important as it is. And perhaps you're right, that his particular ancestry is something that gives racists pause, or causes some confusion -- perhaps they too have a tendency to think of black modern Africans as somehow qualitatively different from black modern Americans descended from slaves.

Who knows? Maybe the thing of key importance is just that 20 months of campaigning have given some people time to replace reflexive racism with a knowledge of Barack Obama as an individual, and in the end, it's the individual they're voting for (or, not against), not his skin color, nor his ancestry, as the article says.