My President Is Biracial |
Multiracial Media: Voice of the Multiracial Community
2016-12-27
TaRessa Stovall
Atlanta, Georgia
Remember that 2008 post-election rap anthem?
“My President is Black; in fact, he’s half White
So even in a racist mind he’s half right
—Jay-Z and Young Jeezy’s “My President”
That’s what runs through my mind as I read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ dissection of #POTUS44 in The Atlantic magazine. In “My President Was Black,” Coates, a Black thought leader and New York Times-bestselling author of Between the World and Me, riffs on President Obama in a potent, yet lacking, meditation on race, racism, and the identity politics of tightrope dancing as the leader of the free world.
In this and previous essays, Coates examines the kaleidoscopic nature of POTUS44’s racial identity through a strictly Black lens. As a result, he never quite grasps how the nuances and complexities of Obama’s Biraciality intersect with his governance as The First Black President.
The “my President is Biracial” concept not an easy equation to understand unless you are one of the folks whose lineage spills outside the narrow lines of identities limited to the constricting binary that is racial identity in the USA…
Read the entire article here.
Tags: Multiracial Media, Multiracial Media: Voice of the Multiracial Community, Ta-Nehisi Coates, TaRessa Stovall