It Doesn't Matter If You're Black or White

This musical title was sung, of course, by a black man trying through surgery to be white.

Some of you may have noticed that Barack Hussein Obama is both black and a presidential candidate.

Well, the joke's on you. He's only half-black. In fact, a friend told me that the right-wing blogosphere has begun referring to him as "Halfrican."

But alas, this is America, and he looks black, and therefore must be black.

Just don't tell the African-Americans.

Since working full-time, I troll the news sites with a lot less regularity. But a couple things have caught my eye with regard to Obama and his face of many colors.

First, of course, was Joe Biden calling Obama "clean." Naturally, the focus is on the implication that black people aren't clean. Not much has been said about the fact that Biden also called him "articulate," which is a word used for black athletes by white people who can understand what they're saying in interviews. The implications of "articulate" seem more offensive to me than "clean." Though let's face it: both are pretty wrong.

But the other thing I've noticed on the various news sites is that no less than three articles have appeared since Obama made his candidacy announcement with the same premise: Obama can't count on the black vote.

The implication here, of course, is that usually black people blindly vote for black candidates.

I know I'm just a white dude, but I reject the premise. People - yes, even black people - are far more complicated than politicians and political reporters give them credit for being. That this article is news (at least) three times over is almost as offensive as the articulate and clean Joe Biden.

And anyway, if black people always voted for the black candidate, Al Sharpton would've fared a hell of a lot better in his various campaigns over the years.