Obama Blew It With 'Black' Census Pick

He missed a chance to celebrate being biracial
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 29, 2010 12:57 PM CDT
Updated Apr 29, 2010 1:57 PM CDT
Obama Blew It With 'Black' Census Pick
President Obama speaks on Wall Street reform at the Oakley Lindsay Center in Quincy, Ill., Wednesday, April 28, 2010.   (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

Elizabeth Chang wants America to "move beyond the tired concept of race," which is why she's so disappointed that President Obama chose to check only "black" on his census form. Under the rules, he could have checked "white" as well, or "some other race." Remember he once said he could no more disown Jeremiah Wright "than I can my white grandmother?" Well, "with his census choice, he has done precisely that," writes Chang in the Washington Post.

Obama missed a chance to make a statement about being biracial. "If the most powerful person in this country says that because society thinks he looks black, he is black, it sends a message that biracial children have to identify with the side they most resemble," writes Chang, the mother of biracial children. Besides, aren't we supposed to fill out these forms accurately?
(More Barack Obama stories.)

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