Now, I have kept my tongue on the whole Obama being black thing. But am I the only one that has a problem with the notion of Powell as black? Look at him!

Nobody really seems to want to admit that mixed parentage is a very big category of people. I suppose this way of dividing people up goes back to the days when any sign of black ancestry got you excluded.

cactus flower wrote:

Nobody really seems to want to admit that mixed parentage is a very big category of people. I suppose this way of dividing people up goes back to the days when any sign of black ancestry got you excluded.

It's peculiar to the states, in other parts of the Americas there are plenty of layers of racial mixes. The funny thing is that many supposedly white people in Latin America can be viciously racist themselves, but when they go to the US they get lumped with the same people they despise.

But I want to know, did it come as a shock to anyone else to find out he was regarded as black? Chris Patten mentioned it in that book of his and I was astounded. (Incidentally he has a new book out, yippee!)

905 wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Nobody really seems to want to admit that mixed parentage is a very big category of people. I suppose this way of dividing people up goes back to the days when any sign of black ancestry got you excluded.

It's peculiar to the states, in other parts of the Americas there are plenty of layers of racial mixes. The funny thing is that many supposedly white people in Latin America can be viciously racist themselves, but when they go to the US they get lumped with the same people they despise.

But I want to know, did it come as a shock to anyone else to find out he was regarded as black? Chris Patten mentioned it in that book of his and I was astounded. (Incidentally he has a new book out, yippee!)

I have a great uncle from Bristol, and it was only after he died it occurred to me that he must have had black ancestry. Colette, Grande Dame of French Literature did too: it was never an issue. It will presumably over time get to be less and less of a big deal.

Softball is a different game

youngdan wrote:

Softball is a different game

Read the quote again please dan.

My humblest apoligies Riadach. You are correct. When the republicans picked McCain I would go as far as to say it was handball they were playing.

Even Romney would be trouncing Obama and the other side of the coin is Hillary would be trouncing McCain by 30 points.

The campaign is certainly hotting up.

McCain voter shoots at poster thieves 28/10/2008 - 14:20:31
A John McCain supporter opened fire on two teenagers trying to steal his campaign poster, hitting one in the arm.

Police said 50-year-old Kenneth Rowles told officers in Warren Township, Ohio, that he got out a .22-calibre rifle to fire warning shots, not hurt anyone. The two shots hit the van the youths were in.

Rowles pleaded not guilty to felonious assault.

Police said the victim and his cousin admitted stealing signs from the Rowles garden and elsewhere.

Rowles had the only McCain sign on a street plastered with ones for Barack Obama.

I have a friend who is going to an Obama rally in Virginia today. If I get any word from them on how it was I will pass it on.

Obama's 30 minute 'infomercial' which aired across networks last night:

Part I