Is race a presidential issue?
JMU speaks about Obama and 2008
By Kim Chi Ha, staff writer
Posted on February 26, 2007

“Is Barack Obama ‘black enough’?” is a question the media has been tossing around since the senator from Illinois announced his candidacy earlier this month for the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. Despite only two years of experience in the U.S. Senate, Obama is the second-favorite candidate among democrats, trailing only Hillary Clinton, according to the polls.

“The concern with Obama not being “black enough”… in the end is more of a class issue than a race issue,” said Women of Color president Kelly Anne Greer. “Any wealthy black person who wasn’t raised in a black community could be deemed ‘not black enough’.”
Obama, whose father is Kenyan and mother is from Kansas, was raised in a middle-class home.

“Nothing has changed regarding the idea of race in this country,” said B.J. Williams, the president of Brothers of a New Direction. “Race is going to matter in the next presidential election; people are so focused on categorization, in general, that they are inevitably going to zero in on his obvious physical difference with regard to the majority of this country’s citizens. In America, if race is a possible issue, it will be blown out of proportion.”

Recently it has been asked whether Obama has been alienating his core African-American demographic because he might not be “black enough.”

“It is ridiculous to assume that blacks are determining their support for Barack based on his degree of blackness,” said Elizabeth Ogunwo, president of Black Student Alliance.  “It is his platform, political agenda and beliefs that will gain the support of educated voters regardless of ethnicity.”

She added that the focus on how well Obama leads this country should be geared towards his support for legislation such as the Higher Education Opportunity through the Pell Grant Expansion Act and his support for AIDS prevention funding.

“I think a lot of times when African-Americans kind of move up, people will say ‘You’re acting white’ because black has a negative connotation,” sophomore Jacquelin Jackson said. “If you talk more intelligently, they’ll be like ‘You talk white,’ and he does not fit into the stereotypical mold of a black person.”

Greer agreed.

“We are still waiting for the day where, as a people, our accomplishments are not judged solely in juxtaposition to the white standard; Barack Obama speaks to the people. No other candidate singles out their race, so why should he be expected to?” she said.

Many African-Americans at JMU disagree with the media on the question of whether Obama is “black enough.”

“How black can a black man be?” said Claudia Boateng, president of the African Student Organization. “Look at America; we’re a rainbow of color, he’s not going to help just blacks; he’s an educated man trying to help his country.”

Obama was the third African-American elected to the U.S. Senate by a landslide in 2004 after serving in the Illinois state Senate since 1996. He received his B.A. from Columbia and graduated from Harvard Law magna cum laude in 1991.