He’s a black man.
He’s also white.
To voters accustomed to a presidential pool that traditionally offers a sea of Caucasian candidates, that can be confusing.
“It does not surprise me that people who do not understand a mixed marriage do not understand where Barack Obama comes from,” said Marian Harrison, the affirmative action officer for Snohomish County’s Democratic Party.
Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, was a white woman born in Kansas. She met and married Barack Obama Sr., a Kenyan man, while she was a student at the University of Hawaii. She was still a teenager when she gave birth to her son.
In a country of political dynasties and expensive prep schools tailored to groom presidents, Obama’s story is more than unusual; it could be a sign of a new era, one in which race and class are no longer barriers to political power.
It’s about time, Harrison said.
“It’s important not only that he is biracial, but also that the man has never stood to be anything other than what he is,” she said.
That’s a refreshing change for American Indian voters, whose comparatively small numbers have made their reservations after-thought stops at best for major campaigns in the past. In a visit to the Crow Reservation in Montana, tribal leaders gave Obama the name Awe Kooda Bilaxpak Kuuxshish, which means, “One Who Helps People Throughout the Land.”
John McCoy, a state representative and a member of the Tulalip Tribes, said he became an Obama supporter after he met the candidate when he campaigned in Seattle last year.
“I asked him for his platform in regards to not only minorities, but for Native Americans, and two weeks later, he gave it to me,” McCoy said. “He was prompt, and he delivered.”
Obama is willing to listen to minorities and work to understand their concerns, McCoy said. In a melting pot country, it’s appropriate to have a leader who reflects diversity, he said.
The facts that Obama is multiracial and that Hillary Clinton is a woman – both minorities in national politics – have been major issues throughout their campaigns, but few have discussed the race and gender of John McCain, said Catherine Squires, a professor of journalism at the University of Minnesota who has written about multiracial heritage issues.
“We continue to pretend that white men don’t have race or don’t have gender,” she said.
Race should be discussed, but it should be discussed in terms of all candidates, not just those who are minorities, she said.
Obama identifies himself as black in his memoirs, but that’s partly a political decision, she said. America continues to be a place where a drop of black blood means a person is considered entirely black.
“Self-identifying as black when you are multiracial does not mean you’re ashamed of your race,” she said. “It’s a political reaction to what you survey in society.”
For Peter Gatata, a Kenyan who has lived in the United States for the past 11 years, the important fact about Obama is not his skin color, but it’s the fact that he’s a son of Africa.
Kenyans are chanting and singing in support of Obama, said Gatata, who lives in Lake Stevens. A brewery has even created a beer coined “Barack” in honor of the man many Kenyans believe will share the wealth and power of a U.S. presidency with them.
“In the back of people’s minds, they do hope that Barack would remember his roots, remember where he’s come from and remember his hometown, where they live very impoverished lives,” Gatata said.
Snohomish County Sheriff John Lovick, the highest elected black official in the county, said he thinks of Obama as black, not biracial. He said his own children are biracial, and consider themselves black.
“I guess they’ve been told, and I’ve been told, that if any part of you is black, then you are black,” he said.
Lovick, who was born in rural, segregated Louisiana, said he has faith that Americans can set the issue of race aside in order to consider each candidate’s competence.
He has campaigned eight times, first as a state representative and most recently for the office of sheriff. No one ever mentioned his race during all of those long afternoons knocking on doors, he said.
Lovick supported Clinton throughout her campaign, but said he’ll gladly stump for Obama.
Ideally, race wouldn’t be a campaign issue, but it is, said Harrison, the county Democratic Party’s affirmative action officer.
“Barack Obama is an enigma,” she said. “He’s proven what he can withstand, having been a biracial person living in Chicago. If he can withstand that, he can withstand anything.”
Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.
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