The New York Times reports that Barack Obama checked “Black” on his census:
The president, who was born in Hawaii and raised there and in Indonesia, had more than a dozen options in responding to Question 9, about race. He chose “Black, African Am., or Negro.” (The anachronistic “Negro” was retained on the 2010 form because the Census Bureau believes that some older blacks still refer to themselves that way.)
Mr. Obama could have checked white, checked both black and white, or checked the last category on the form, “some other race,” which he would then have been asked to identify in writing.
There is no category specifically for mixed race or biracial.
So the Times is saying Obama could have realistically checked another one? Really? Honestly genuinely? Perhaps it’s correct: he could also have resigned the second Rush Limbaugh said “I hope he fails,” petitioned to put his kids in foster homes, grown a beard, gotten his ears pierced, or converted to Judaism if he so chose.
We can all choose many things but that doesn’t mean we do them or it’d be realistic for us to do so.
So let’s get this straight: in this mega-partisan political climate someone thought there was a possibility Obama would or could create a new issue that would give the 24/7 controversy-reliant talk radio political culture and blogosphere some material on a slow news weekend by checking “white” (which would enrage blacks and undermine all of the articles and posts about his historical election to the White House) or white and black (which would enrage blacks and enrage whites who don’t like him because he is a black President) or another race (“Nodramatist….Orator” or perhaps the one some of his critics think might have applied “Antichrist”)?
This is what we called when I was in the news biz a “nonstory.” (So I just HAD to write a nonpost about it).
THIS JUST IN! Sources tell us Barack Obama brushed his teeth and rinsed his mouth with water this morning…
You can follow Joe Gandelman on Twitter.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.