Barack Obama

[Sol Invictus]

Do you guys really thing he is black or what? I don't know what to thing really. I think he looks, anthropologically speaking, mostly black. With his lighter features contributing to his whiter complexion. I've heard people saying he's mostly arab and all that, but I wanna know from people who know anthropology and I want to know what they think.

[Æmeric]

Forget about anthropology, in the American social context Obama is Black! Maybe in Cairo or Palermo that might be debatable but in America he his Black. He does not look like the typical US Negro, his Negro ancestry being East African as opposed to West African for most New World Negroes & Mulattoes. This probably played a part in his election. If he had looked like Al sharpton or Jesse Jackson he would of had a harder time winning White votes.


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3150/2298590847_51ddb1d36d.jpg

Barack Obama senior was not an Arab.:rolleyes: But he was a Muslim. Most Muslims are not Arab. The largest Muslim nations by population are Indonesia (where BHO spent part of his childhood), Pakistan & Bangladesh.

[Karaten]

He's a mutt, really.

[Guapo]

Forget about anthropology, in the American social context Obama is Black! Maybe in Cairo or Palermo that might be debatable but in America he his Black. He does not look like the typical US Negro, his Negro ancestry being East African as opposed to West African for most New World Negroes & Mulattoes. This probably played a part in his election. If he had looked like Al sharpton or Jesse Jackson he would of had a harder time winning White votes.


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3150/2298590847_51ddb1d36d.jpg

Barack Obama senior was not an Arab.:rolleyes: But he was a Muslim. Most Muslims are not Arab. The largest Muslim nations by population are Indonesia (where BHO spent part of his childhood), Pakistan & Bangladesh.

To me he looks like a New World negro but with not so recent caucasian ancestry. His father being south eastern African might be the reson why. They tend to be darker with the exception of Ethiopians and Somalis.

[Vulpix]

He's repulsive looking, and his skin tone is weird. It's not a warm chocolatey brown, it's some kind of "stained" dark olive color :shrug:.

PS: Think not thing ;)

[Angharad]

He looks a lot like his maternal grandfather, but with African hair and coloring.

http://www.kansasprairie.net/kansasprairieblog/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/barak-and-grandparents-small.jpg

[Brännvin]

In fact he is biracial, commonly mongrel. Of course, within of the American ethno-social context he is black/negro as Æmeric pointed out.

What was funny during the U.S. elections, it was the media trying to compare the Obama's couple to the Kennedy's couple, without wrapping ideological questions, the comparison was a little ridiculous and a little bit forced.

The couple Kennedy was really good looking.

[Loki]

Well, the Irish were also considered black in America at some point.

Phenotypically, Obama looks like people who live in the Caucasoid-Negroid overlap zone, i.e. Somalia, Ethiopia, etc. Anthropolgists consider those to be Caucasoid.

[Útrám]

Kennedy's catholic religious beliefs and Irish ancestry made his chances slim which was one of the reasons for the media comparisons.

[Tabiti]

He looks exactly one mulatto I know here.
Guess he got traits from the both races...

[Agrippa]

He's repulsive looking, and his skin tone is weird. It's not a warm chocolatey brown, it's some kind of "stained" dark olive color :shrug:.

PS: Think not thing ;)

Yes, especially his lips look awkward. There are actually many much more harmonious skin colored mulattoes around.

And no, he is in no way "black", but colored.

In the USA there is the ethnosocial context of what being considered black/African American and thats not the same as race I know, because some of those "blacks" are even more Europoid than Negroid actually. However, by making no difference you put all those half-Europoids in the Negrid category with the rest and since the vast majority of the more gifted, successful and even more so the rather attractive Afro-Americans being mixed, thats rather a gift actually.

If Obama would have looked like his father, he would have had a much harder time to make it so far and thats for sure. As is Halle Berry obviously half-Europid and that contributed greatly to her attractiveness. So if somebody says she's "black" than thats just strange, she is colored and might identify herself as "Afro-American" or call herself even black, yet she isnt and we must stress that.

Mixture is only a loss to those which have the higher standard for a region or in general, its however not bad in itself with some exceptional cases and features.

Its more about the group's homogeneity, kinship and average standards European descendents usually have, if we should be against race mixture, yet as I said, for a Negrid in most cases Europid admixture means a positive update rather and the vast majority of Negroids are below the mixed people standards.


Anthropolgists consider those to be Caucasoid.

Depends on the anthropologists in question since many didnt. Fact is Aethiopids are no easy thing and best putting in their own intermediate category, with those less Europiform being put in the at least Negroid race group, note the suffix because Sudanid, Palaenegrid etc. are Negrid proper.

[Æmeric]

Well, the Irish were also considered black in America at some point.The Irish were never considered Black in America. That "The Irish were black when they came to America" nonsense is just contemporary pity propaganda perpetuated by Irish-Catholic politicians - much like the Jews like to raise the spector of anti-Semitism as a means of deflecting criticisms of their group politics. The Irish were a distinct alien group when they arrived in America but so are Mexicans & they are not black in the understanding of that word in America.


Phenotypically, Obama looks like people who live in the Caucasoid-Negroid overlap zone, i.e. Somalia, Ethiopia, etc. Anthropolgists consider those to be Caucasoid.



http://boydiebeener.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/blog-iman.jpg

http://www.sagalradio.net/somali%20police.jpg

^ Somalis. University trained anthropologists need to spend less time with skeletal relics & more time with living humans. The term Caucasian is too inclusive.

[Agrippa]

Somalis. University trained anthropologists need to spend less time with skeletal relics & more time with living humans. The term Caucasian is too inclusive.

The problem comes from the fact that some wanted to put all East Africans in one category or another, yet they dont fit neither, neither genetically nor typologically fully.

For the genetic part also compare with this article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7358868.stm

The possible "Palaeo-African" component being stronger in Negrid proper than Aethiopids, in which its low and strongest in Bambutids (African Pygmies) and Khoisanids (Bushmen), the most primitive populations of Africa.

Also compare:

Observed disparity patterns imply a mix of differences and similarities across populations, with no apparent support for genetic bottlenecks, which is likely a consequence of migrations that may have influenced differences in cranial form; supporting data are found in recent molecular studies. The Pygmy sample had the most distinctive cranial morphology; characteristically small in size with marked prognathism. These features characterized, although less strongly, the neighboring Bateke, and are possibly related to similar selective pressures in conjunction with interbreeding. Small cranial size is also involved in the considerable distinctiveness of the San and Khoikhoi.

http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2009/04/geometric-morphometric-quantification.html

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122271082/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

So in colored Africa, those with the least "Palaeo" influence are, as a rule of thumb, also the most racially progressive and vice versa.

Somalis are rather on the "elongated Negroid" side, so closer to Europids, but with a rather low newer and direct Europid influence. Still they are often more Europoid than mulattoes are.

If comparing these two:

http://boydiebeener.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/blog-iman.jpg

http://www.sagalradio.net/somali%20police.jpg

She has obviously a much stronger Europoid influence.

If talking about predominantely Europoid individuals and such with direct influences from East Africa, these examples fit much better, some are "morphologically more Europid than many Europeans" actually.

Pred. Europoid East African (Samhar, Beja-mixed Region):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/43/109276158_777afd4110.jpg

Bulga:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/218/523108072_9ed8319f39_o.jpg

More Europoid vs. more Negroid variant from one family (cousins) in the district of Bulga:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/239/523097726_562fa126d3_o.jpg

Tsemay girl from the South West of Ethiopia with a rather leptomorphised Negroid morphology:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1234/533668519_ca36a69178_o.jpg

If you compare the last girl with those from above, the difference between just leptomorphised Negroid and those with clear Europoid tendencies/influence should be clear. Obama is half Europid, proven case, yet morphology and by general traits less Europid than the old Beja man and the mother with her child for sure.

Also some of the East Africans build up higher culture much earlier than other Subsaharan Africans and partly held their own slaves, considering Nilotes and Bantus "black", while themselves not. Things are more complicated actually.

[Atlas]

Your president is half white.

[Electronic God-Man]

Your president is half white.

Yet full nigger.

edit: As far as we're concerned.

[Vulpix]

White is full white only. There is no such thing as half white imo.

[Bloodeagle]

In fact he is biracial, commonly mongrel. Of course, within of the American ethno-social context he is black/negro as Æmeric pointed out.

What was funny during the U.S. elections, it was the media trying to compare the Obama's couple to the Kennedy's couple, without wrapping ideological questions, the comparison was a little ridiculous and a little bit forced.

The couple Kennedy was really good looking.

I thought I might mention with a bad taste in my mouth, that at one time in American history the Catholic Irish were viewed as being the white negro, especially in the Anglo North-Eastern states.

John F. Kennedy's election was a milestone of ethnic proportion for its time!

I am sure the same cabal that spun Kennedy's campaign might also be at work here with Obama. Possibly with the same final outcome.:wink