How long do you think

[trt]

it will take before somebody will try to assassinate Obama in the coming year?

Don't get me wrong, I like him.

[stensonlad]

I think black people voted him in BECAUSE HE IS BLACK not because they think he was better than any other candidate, the same as in talent shows on television the Scottish,Welsh and Irish vote for someone from their neck of the woods and not because that particula contestant has any talent.

[sqad617]

Interesting...a Capitalist country, well established class society, votes in a black president.

How long before a Socialist, classless society votes in a black Prime Minister?

Doesn't contribute to the question, but....just a thought.

[sqad617]

Could well be doc...NW North Wales I assume.

[Twenty20]

I thought he's mixed race, not black? Or is anybody who is not 100% white considered black? I get so confused about these things.

[stensonlad]

The media has decided he is the first black president!!!!!!
Also why do a lot of mixed race people seem to to consider themselves black?

[BillySugger]

As to the question itself ? I fear not very long .

[derekpara]

Sadly, I fear that Billy is right and I also agree with Stensolad. The sooner everyone accepts that we are all human beings first, with all the failings, prejudices etc, the sooner we will all live in comparative harmony together.

The world is fast becoming one big community, not the plethora of far- scattered, remote and alien countries of our pre-high tech days. We either learn to live together or will all perish together. And that's from someone who's done his share of mischief around the globe.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-112096 3/Ten-cent-UK-children-mixed-race-family.html

The report states: 'Those who define themselves as singularly Caribbean are likely to decline over time, as increasingly complex heritages emerge among those with some element of Caribbean descent.'

This being so, surely it will also mean the decline and finally demise of the Whites, since it seems that peoples of mixed Black & White heritages, class themselves as Black?

[VHG]

I remember watching the OJ Simpson trial a few years ago.

They had cameras watching the crowds when the result was announced, one a room full of blacks, the other a room full of whites.

When it came through "Not Guilty" the blacks stood to their feet cheering, the whites sat there in stunned silence.

A perfect illustration of the back / white divide in the USA.

[calvin80]

well how typical of you brits to write rascist remarks ....each answer has the word " black " written all over it ( well now u can include mine eh ?) ....u all seem to be forgetting that Mr Barack Obama is the president now of the SUPER POWER called AMERICA ...Mr Moderator ....are u gonna be partial here ? I suggest the thread be scrapped.

[Quinlad]

The black/mixed race writer Matthew Ryder writes:

"The term "black" has always included mixed-race and lighter skinned people of African heritage.

Some argue that a less racist society would have recognised black and mixed race as different. But that well-meaning approach is both inaccurate and reactionary. It was the most racist societies that highlighted such distinctions and, to our credit, we moved on. The American South proudly divided slaves into "negroes", "mulattos", "quadroons" and "octoroons". Apartheid South Africa, also differentiated between "black" and "coloured".

In deliberate contrast, "black" did not make distinctions based on racial purity. First, it was unifying. African-Americans, like Caribbeans, are a physically diverse, but culturally connected people. Second, it was liberating. The phenomenon of everyone from "negroes" to "quadroons" choosing to redefine themselves as "black", regardless of skin tone or hair texture, consciously subverted a discredited history of oppression. The closeness to white ancestry was no longer the defining source of our identity.

Once the genesis of the term is understood, the fallacy that "mixed race" can or should be separated from "black" is exposed. By definition, "black" includes mixed-race; to assert otherwise would mean changing what "black" means. And, if so, are we supposed to invent a new term for a group of "black" people who are racially "pure"?

If we embrace our own multiple identities and enjoy who we are, instead of arguing over what we are not, we can face the future with more confidence. That is why I, and many others like me, remain unapologetically and happily African, Caribbean, British, European, mixed-race and, of course, black."