issoisso wrote:
Americans have weird concepts. I still don't get how to americans he's "black" despite genetically being only half-black, half-white. weird.
well if you compare him to every other president in the USA then he is blacker then all of them.
Barack Obama will not take office until January 20th 2009. After that there is a period known as the Honeymoon period, were the president can pretty much do anything. However with support of both houses of congress, there will be many changes.
issoisso wrote:
Americans have weird concepts. I still don't get how to americans he's "black" despite genetically being only half-black, half-white. weird.
well if you compare him to every other president in the USA then he is blacker then all of them.
And keep going back further, and we're all descended from whatever made the Big Bang. So we're all the same really.
Which is one of the many, many, lovely flaws in any kind of racism. Keep going back in time, and we're all related.
issoisso wrote:
Americans have weird concepts. I still don't get how to americans he's "black" despite genetically being only half-black, half-white. weird.
And while we're at it, why do north-americans call central and south americans "latin" no matter how white or black they are? that's weird. To me, calling a guy "latin" is like calling another guy "scandinavian"....
You might have heard it as mestiço. And the reason he is considered black, is because he is of darker skin, so cleary people see his african ethnicity.
On the Latin thing, it has to do with the term Latin America, which refers to Mexico through South America. I must admit you don't here someone refered to as Latin that much, you would more hear Hispanic.
Edited by stemple on 05-11-2008 22:45
issoisso wrote:
Americans have weird concepts. I still don't get how to americans he's "black" despite genetically being only half-black, half-white. weird.
And while we're at it, why do north-americans call central and south americans "latin" no matter how white or black they are? that's weird. To me, calling a guy "latin" is like calling another guy "scandinavian"....
You might have heard it as mestiço. And the reason he is considered black, is because he is of darker skin, so cleary people see his african ethnicity.
On the Latin thing, it has to do with the term Latin America, which refers to Mexico through South America. I must admit you don't here someone refered to as Latin that much, you would more hear Hispanic.
Here we have the word "mulato" as well, but it's only used to compare the skin color with the black "like charcoal" ones...
Oh, and did you all knew that it's more likely to a south-european to be more genetically identical with an african than a north-european? Around 99.9% of the human being is genetically the same for every person in every country. Look what the crappy 0.1% does...Edited by MarcoPRT on 06-11-2008 22:03
issoisso wrote:
Americans have weird concepts. I still don't get how to americans he's "black" despite genetically being only half-black, half-white. weird.
I think it's to do with the fact Americans have to register in one of the following categories : black, white, latin, indian (are there more categories ?).
Despite being only "half-black", Obama is registered as a black.
It's strictly forbidden in France to sort people by racial category, btw.
Most people are happy with Obama in Europe, without even knowing more about his program. From the two candidates he was the most different from Bush, who is widely detested in Europe.
Now many black people communities (Carribean, Africans, etc.) are feeling proud in France as they feel more represented in the world. I find this quite stupid, people's skin colour shouldn't count, neither as a good nor as a bad thing. Which influence will Obama have on French coloured people (compared to if he had been white) ? None...
Edited by Aquarius on 07-11-2008 09:29
matt493 wrote:
being charismatic is a good trait. Think that if we need to convince North Korea not to nuclear bomb us. Obama will be great,
North Korea hates USA, but there's no risk to be bombed. Nuking requires not only the bomb but the ability to launch it, and USA are much to far away for NK abilities.
Japan has to fear them though.
As for Iraq, there's a couple of things to say about what you wrote(I think that was you) : first is that USA should not have gone there, at least not for the official reasons. There were no MDW there, and there was no case of emergency, Iraq was no threat neither for Israel nor for the USA. UN could very well have kept on with the investigation job.
Second is that if people are dying there at the moment, it will be even worst for civilians once Western armies will have retired. Civil war until some extremist Islamist gets the power there. Saddam Hussein was a bastard, don't get me wrong, but despite being a Muslim he was not an Islamist (=extremist), and he managed to keep Islamists quiet. I doubt the US government really considered that aspect when they said they needed to free Iraqis from Saddam Hussein...
matt493 wrote:
being charismatic is a good trait. Think that if we need to convince North Korea not to nuclear bomb us. Obama will be great,
North Korea hates USA, but there's no risk to be bombed. Nuking requires not only the bomb but the ability to launch it, and USA are much to far away for NK abilities.
Japan has to fear them though.
As for Iraq, there's a couple of things to say about what you wrote(I think that was you) : first is that USA should not have gone there, at least not for the official reasons. There were no MDW there, and there was no case of emergency, Iraq was no threat neither for Israel nor for the USA. UN could very well have kept on with the investigation job.
Second is that if people are dying there at the moment, it will be even worst for civilians once Western armies will have retired. Civil war until some extremist Islamist gets the power there. Saddam Hussein was a bastard, don't get me wrong, but despite being a Muslim he was not an Islamist (=extremist), and he managed to keep Islamists quiet. I doubt the US government really considered that aspect when they said they needed to free Iraqis from Saddam Hussein...
About North Korea I was just using a random example.
I definitely agree that we shouldn't have gone in there for the first place but if we showly start moving away in 18 months then I think things will be better,
I have to say, personally i think that Obama will do a fantastic job. His approach to it all seems very pleasing. Britain orders one Obama please. Brown sucks!
