Biracial President

"Isn't it time for the language to move on?" Marie Arana writes in her editorial in which she starts off talking about Barack Obama. Although one of the main points of her article is about biracial people, and how more and more people around us are biracial, without us realizing it, her message is much deeper than that. " In other words, the color of a president-elects skin doesn't tell you much. It's an unreliable marker, a deceptive form of packaging. Isn't it time we stopped using labels that validate the separation of races?" Basically, I feel that her editorial is about moving on and bringing the words we say up to speed with the actions we are taking, and I agree with her.

American citizens may not realize how ignorant they can be at times. For example, by referencing Barack Obama as our first black president, when technically he is our first Biracial President. He will be the first president that is black, but he is also half white. By calling him the first black president I don't believe that you are wrong. It is still true, just not as correct as it could be.

I feel that it is both technically correct because there is no incorrect statement being made. One isn't as correct or as proper, yet still true. I also feel that we were misinformed. Nobody mentioned during the election process or through any of the campaigns that he was the first biracial president, he was always referenced as the first black president.

The point Marie Arana is trying to make is we need to be as sophisticated with our word choices as we are with our decisions we make. If we are trying to bring both to the same level, I feel that we need to educate, and say the proper phrases from the beginning. I don't feel that people are being incorrect because they don't agree, I believe it is because they don't know the truth.


He's Not Black