A strange sort of tug of war has emerged between those who claim that Obama is not really black – because of his mother – and others who take pride in him as an African-American President. In American history, culture and, for a long time, law, a person of mixed race was considered black. That’s not the custom in Brazil or other places in Latin America or the Caribbean. But it’s the case here.
That said, there is something remarkable about having a biracial President – more historically remarkable even than having a President whose parents were both black (though even then there would be white blood mixed).
For so much of American history, whites have expressed a paranoia about race mixing. From the earliest days of Colonial settlement in Virginia and South Carolina to the 1960s, laws strictly prohibited any sexual and marital connection between black and white. These laws were one-sided, however, as the slave’s status was defined by the mother who often fell victim to a white slaveholder’s lust. A white father and a black mother meant simply one more slave.
But a black father and a white mother was something else entirely. To a society that viewed civilization itself as embedded in racial biology, race mixing meant “degeneracy” and the descent into barbarism. Black men who dared enter relationships with white women faced extreme violence well into the 20th century. Laws banning interracial marriage lasted until 1967. Polling did not show a majority approving of interracial marriage until as late as 1992.
And yet, Barack Obama is the product of a black father and a white mother in an age before Loving v. Virginia legalized such unions nationwide.
What’s striking about the biracial heritage of Obama is its symbolism — his very skin tone embodies a generation no longer obsessed with racial identity. No, it does not mean we’ve entered a “post-racial” era. It just means that race is more obviously stripped of its pseudo-biological trappings. Racial pride is cultural, not genetic.
And this is what the younger generation of voters finds so appealing about Obama. The cohort aged 18-30 is the most multi-racial and multi-cultural generation we’ve ever seen. Young voters are not obsessed with the old racial prescriptions and proscriptions. Nobody spoke to this generation better than the biracial Hawaiian. Nobody symbolizes the new America better than Barack Obama. Congratulations President Obama!