Hum, John B. Judis is almost getting my enduring point about Obama, his chosen blackness and what it says about America and him:
When asked about his race on the census form, Barack Obama, the child of a white Kansan and black African, did not take the option of checking both “white” and “black” or “some other race.” Instead, he checked “black, African American or Negro.” By doing that, Obama probably did what was expected of him, but he also confirmed an enduring legacy of American racism.
I wouldn't have used the word racism, I would have use the word racialism to emphasize the fact that America has believed and till believes in its majority that race defines you and that therefore not choosing is cop-out, an act of cowardice, which brands someone as ashamed of who s/he is and therefore unelectable and nonintegrable within American society. Barack Obama wouldn't be president, he has branded himself as an other than people believe that he was. Americans don't like to complicate their identity politics and like everything/everyone to be either black or white, pun intended. My point has always been that blackness is as real or rather as artificial as négrititude, which explains why Obamamism feels empty to me.
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