isadore;1578795 wrote:1. Since I respect as a person and a leader, I accept how he defines himself as an African American.
2. I have no problem with the definition of African American as a “black American.”
3. The term is even more appropriate from him because his mother was an American and his father was an African.
. Wow! Once you're a Obama lap puppy you throw every thing under the bus for self-ego jerk off. Once again the entitlement mentality take priority over the struggles of slaver, black suppression, civil right movements and the heritage of Black America history.
Black immigrants and their children have become more visible in universities, the workplace and in politics, with Colin L. Powell, the son of Jamaican immigrants, serving as secretary of state, and Barack Obama, born to a Kenyan father and an American mother, a United States Senator from Illinois and emerging as a rising star in the Democratic Party.
During the campaign, the debate spilled into public view when Alan Keyes, the black Republican challenger for the Senate seat in Illinois, questioned whether Mr. Obama, the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention, should claim an African-American identity. "Barack Obama claims an African-American heritage," Keyes said on the ABC program "This Week". "Barack Obama and I have the same race that is, physical characteristics. We are not from the same heritage." "My ancestors toiled in slavery in this country," Mr. Keyes said. "My consciousness, who I am as a person, has been shaped by my struggle, deeply emotional and deeply painful, with the reality of that heritage."
Some black Americans argue that black immigrants, like Obama and Mr. Powell, are most certainly African-American. (Mr. Obama and Mr. Powell often use that term when describing themselves.) Yet some immigrants and their children prefer to be called African or Nigerian-American or Jamaican-American, depending on their countries of origin. Other people prefer the term black, which seems to include everyone, regardless of nationality. Keyes's comments reflect the views of a number of black Americans.
Many argued that the term African-American should refer to the descendants of slaves brought to the United States centuries ago, not to newcomers who have not inherited the legacy of bondage, segregation and legal discrimination. Dr. Bobby Austin, an administrator at the University of the District of Columbia understood why some blacks were offended when Obama and Powell claimed an African-American identity. Dr. Austin said some people feared that black immigrants and their children would snatch up the hard-won opportunities made possible by the civil rights movement. Obama claims anything that benefits Obama.... Thank The Lord those bondage by slavery, suppression and the struggles of civil rights paved the way for self gratifying individuals like Obama ... Once a fraud always a fraud