Morgan Freeman told NPR yesterday that while Barack Obama is the nation’s first mixed-race president, he doesn’t feel that Barack Obama is truly a Black man. Newser offers this quote:
“First thing that always pops into my head regarding our president is that all of the people who are setting up this barrier for him … they just conveniently forget that Barack had a mama, and she was white — very white American, Kansas, middle of America. There was no argument about who he is or what he is. America’s first black president hasn’t arisen yet. He’s not America’s first black president—he’s America’s first mixed-race president.”
Freeman’s interview touches on many other subjects, and Freeman is a supporter of President Obama’s, but the race issue he discussed raises a big question about identity.
What does it mean to be a Black man? If you’re raised by white parents, are you less Black?
If strangers perceive you as Black, is that enough to make you Black?
AP Photo
I am a descendent of several races/ethnicites. I grew up being taught by my WHITE (European) mother that I was black. It has taken a lifetime of 35 years to become an adult and accept that I am not just Black, I am not just White but I am of Native American, African and European descent. I agree with Morgan Freeman. It has nothing to do with his celebrity, nothing to do with racism, its just a state of fact that our current president of of mixed races!
I agree with Morgan Freemans comment. Barak Obama is a fantasic indivudal and I will continue to support him as my president but it is very true that he is not the first africa-american president. Not only was his mother was a White American from the mid-west, but his father is an African immigrant from Kenya and thus has completly differnet background and history comparted to Black Americans whose parents and grandparents were born and raised in this country. I can personally relate to this idea by being a first generation Haitian-American. I have always been put into the black… Read more »
And he’s a muggle to boot.
This is a topic very close to me because I grew up in a similar situation as Obama (minus the president thing). My whole life people have been calling me Black when they want to, Mixed when they want to, or White when they want to. For the most part everyone knows I’m mixed, and because I’m mixed with Black (and Italian), I’ve mostly been considered to be Black. This is always the case–some people think I’m just a darker white guy, some people think I’m Latino–but it’s mostly the case. At the end of the day, Morgan Freeman is… Read more »
Morgan Freeman is an actor, not a political scientist. Is his opinion–even delivered in his silky smooth narrative voice–worth two shits?
JFB
Seriously! I think his role as God on Bruce Almighty has taken to his ego.
Well said 😀 It bothers me that we sometimes pay more attention to actors and singers than politicians and academics who have real influence.
I’m not a racist, but I think Morgan Freeman’s statement can be taken two ways. We can interpret it ethnically, to mean that both his parents weren’t black, or we can interpret it culturally, which is that being raised by his white grandparents, he never had to live the “black experience.” Being of mixed race myself, my “identity” is every shifting. I can speak both “MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour” and “The Wire” fairly proficiently. How others perceive my racial identity is somewhat out of my control, as it is for Obama. In his native Kenya, he is probably seen as a white… Read more »
I know you were kidding, but that last sentence raises an important point: it’s ALL contextual. That’s why, at the end of the day, Obama has to say “Well, I’m not NOT Black just because Morgan Freeman thinks so. He’s right–I’m mixed. But I’m mixed with Black. So I am Black. And White. And Mixed. Deal.”
What always seems to get lost in the rhetoric is that there is ethnicity (I’m of Japanese descent) and culture (American, Asian American, Japanese American). Those lines get blurred too often. I wish that we could just acknowledge our differences both ethnically and culturally and be OK with it. When we are so afraid of stepping on toes since we may be labelled a racist it stifles productive conversation. Let’s get rid of all this fear of race and start to understand each other. We still measure men on the color of the skin and not the content of his… Read more »
Is Morgan Freeman himself 100% of African descent with no other ancestry? I highly, highly doubt it. The idea that you are black because people perceive you as black is true in many ways in America, but it has a sordid history (the whole “one drop rule”). I think what Morgan Freeman is talking about is more an ideal than a reality. Ideally someone who is 50% black and 50% white would be considered mixed race and not black. In reality in America right now… that’s just not the case. P.S. Totally not relevant to the discussion at hand, but… Read more »
Freeman’s remark is silly. Anyone perceived as black in America is treated as black. Of course, Obama’s an extremely wealthy and privileged black man, so he hasn’t had the “full and authentic black experience”… but that’s going to be true of any big-name politician.
Is anyone in the US “pure” in terms of ethnicity? How distantly related do one’s ancestors have to be to constitute as being of a different race?
Yeah, that’s definitely a part of the problem with trying to define who is “what”… Very few populations can attest to racial purity (and it always makes me nervous when they do).
I think the issue here is possibly less about how dark one’s skin is (would anyone who didn’t know Barack Obama before he was president identify him as “caucasian”?), and more about how his life and opportunities were somehow changed because of being raised by a white woman…
I’m curious if I’m just inferring this or if other people get this impression as well.
It’s a good point, but the purposes of the argument I’d say he has probably had a similar experience of racism to any other decendant of african americans. I doubt the racists would go easy on him because he’s only partially black.
Actually, copyleft says it perfectly: “Freeman’s remark is silly. Anyone perceived as black in America is treated as black.”
Caveat, of course, that this is coming from a white guy that isn’t even from the US, but I’d be surprised to discover he had it any easier.
Question: What about his white side, does it not count? is it not also valid to acknowledge the white side of a mix race person,? Why do whites dismiss the white side and call mix race children black? to me they are saying in an under tone that the white race has to be pure and not diluted or mixed with anyother race, it so ironic that if any race has a child with a white person, they refer to the child as the oposite race and not white, why is this the case? Obama does not look black, he… Read more »
I also have this question; my grand daughter is mixed race; when I searched for a baby doll for her to play with, I searched for one that looks like her. Her skin is a light olive, hair blond and curly but not yellow blond…..more like a light brown with blond streaks, and her eyes are hazel. She has some features that reflect her genetic heritage on both sides. It seems that her family wants her to identify with her ‘black’ family side. My question is, what about her Asian side? And why can’t she just identify with herself? Back… Read more »