Would most people consider the following people to be asian?
- Ben Kingsley
- Phoebe Cates
- Keanu Reeves
- Dean Cain
- Rob Schneider
- Jennifer Tilly
- Kristin Kreuk
- Mark-Paul Gosselaar
- Johnny Damon
- Greg Louganis
- Norah Jones
Well...they are half-asian, but not many people know that. people are usually surprised to hear that they are not 100% white. they are known as caucasian, not asian and not even half. and there's an even much much longer list of celebrities who are half-black and you'd be surprised.
so if that is the case, why is it that Barack Obama (and Halle Berry for that matter) is considered black when he is also half? he's just as much white as he is black... but he's considered our first "African-American President." it's technically correct, but not completely in my book. i just don't get it. it doesn't piss me off, but i do want to know why he's considered "Black."
my observation is that people have difficulty putting a person in the 'half' category. you're either black, white, asian, etc.. nothing in between, and it is all determined by how you 'look.' aileen is half, but she looks asian, so people consider her asian and are very surprised to know she's actually half (by the way, aileen is 'half' to me).
so if my observation is correct, then would barack obama have gotten the awesome support from the african-ameican community if he happened to look more white than black? would people say he is our first african-american president?
p.s. for the record, i don't care that obama identifies himself as black (even though he was raised by a single white mother). it doesn't matter what he thinks. if he is proud to be black (or even white), then so be it, makes no difference. what matters is what everyone else thinks about him, and they think he's black.
p.p.s. did you also know that he and dick cheney are distantly related? they are 8th cousins.
interesting articles on his bi-racial heritage:
posted by Andy and Aileen @ 10:03 PM
