by Glen Ford from Black Agenda Report.
The author takes issue with Obama's way of describing himself, and rightfully so. As I see it, this incident says a lot about racism in America.
If one has any African physical features at all, one is classified as Black or African-American. Obama had very little exposure, if any, to Black Africans. He was raised mostly by a successful, white, banker grandmother in Hawaii, an exceptional multi-racial place where racism is not a strong issue. So it is not surprising that he used a term based on a perspective that is widely held by Euro-Americans. Although he is publicly identified as African-American, there is very little of the latter sub-culture and perspectives in him.
This phenomenon was exploited by the ruling class when they chose him to run for President. They took advantage of this racial identity to fool the public into thinking that, first of all, this was an "equal opportunity" country that had overcome racism, and secondly, that Obama represented a truly different perspective on things which informed his campaign theme about "change".