microaggressions:

A girl in my English class described president Obama as ‘Black.’ I mentioned that he had a White mother and therefore this side of his heritage should be acknowledged too as it’s just as much a part of him. The response: “Yeah, but he still has Black heritage, so he’s Black, isn’t he? Doesn’t matter what vagina he came out from.”  Made me angry, frustrated at the ignorance, categorised and disheartened - I am a mixed race person.

To the ignorant girl in this submitter’s class: Look, it’s not up to you to decide what race(s) Obama is or isn’t. If you’re going to stand by what you said, why on earth shouldn’t Obama also be considered white since he has a white mother and is therefore white too? Your (lack of) logic is simply self-defeating, and if you still don’t get it, then I don’t know who can help you.

I once discussed in my 12th-grade Human Rights class why it is that Americans tend to view Obama as being our first black President when, really, he’s both black and white. I’m not sure what my perception of his race was, but I’d never thought critically about it, so I probably went with the mainstream view that he is only black. What’s important here is that it’s Obama’s place to decide what he identifies as.