Barack Obama has two best-selling books, one of which (his autobiography Dreams From My Father) is specifically about his journey of racial and personal identity.  In interviews he has said that his biraciality puts him in a unique position to bring people together in this country.  Why is it then, that he is constantly touted as the first would-be black president, and not ever the first would-be biracial/multiracial/mixed-race president?  Clearly, he is open about his racial identity, so why is it hardly ever mentioned by the media?  I think there are a couple of reasons:

1)  The historical systematic oppression of black people in this country, from slavery to a botched attempt at Reconstruction, from Jim Crow laws to antimiscegenation laws, and finally the affirmative action fiasco, has all served to create and attach a stigma to blackness.

2)  Because race is itself socially created and maintained as the politics of each situation necessitates, and because Barack appears to be black (others identify him as black), it doesn’t matter how he self-identifies, he is black because is identified as such.

3)  Because racial identity has political implications, there are clearly benefits for the black community (and all people of color) in identifying Barack as the first black president.  That he is half white, and therefore representative of the majority culture, is not beneficial to blacks (or other people of color) who would claim him as one of their own.

4)  Because we live in a country that has been obsessed with racially classifying people since its inception, it is just easier for people to place him in whatever box makes the most sense.

Do I think it is wrong for black people to want to claim Barack?  No.  I claim him because I am biracial/mixed-race/multiracial/WHATEVER-people-want-to-call-it-it’s-all-made-up-anyway.  Do I think it is wrong for the media to ignore his multiraciality?  I’m not sure… I just find this all very interesting.  What I appreciate about him is that he is honest about his struggle with identity and his continued acknowledgment that our country has a problem with race (DUH).  Just because race is not biological, and therefore made-up (and changing all the time), doesn’t mean it’s not real.  This is the dangerous and tricky part.  So, if race isn’t real (biological/genetic), then why acknowledge it at all?  Why not just be “colorblind?”  The trouble is that colorblindness neglects to acknowledge the very real historical and current disadvantages people of color face in our society that was constructed as a racial hierarchy.  I’m not sure what the “where do we go from here” is, a solution seems hard to grasp (although many people have many ideas), but I do think it will have to include the giving up (and handing over) of power, from those who have to those who don’t.

I know this is supposed to be “escapisms from thesis-writing,” but sometimes I just have to get some words down, non-academic style.

Thoughts?