Barack Obama transcends simplistic racial categorisation

Throughout the American presidential election ran the constant reference — optimistic, on the part of African Americans — to the possibility of America gaining its “first black president”.

Now that Barack Obama is on his way to the White House, while the references continue, they are coming under more scrutiny. The question being asked boils down to this: How the hell does a man who is the child of a white woman and a black man end up being consistently defined by the black side of his genetic inheritance and herded into the black, rather than the white, community? Obama himself, in refusing to singularly represent any race within the wider American population, has referred to himself as a “mutt.”

“I identify as African-American,” he says. “That’s how I’m treated and that’s how I’m viewed. I’m proud of it.”