Obama: The face of black and white dating

By now most people know that President Barack Obama is a product of black and white dating or marriage for that matter. He was born to a white mother and black father and he spent most of his childhood with his white grandparents from Kansas.

Multicultural, biracial, mixed-race, interracial are the names people have used to describe the likes of Obama. Most off-springs from black and white dating and unions have had such a rough time growing up. And the greatest issue has been the issue of identity. And much as we had the likes of Halle Berry before, it kind of seems that having a recognizable face like the president’s (a face that commands so much respect) to match the term is such a big deal. And now more than ever, they believe that anything is possible for them.

Most biracial kids have never had it easy growing up. Kristine Brown is a product of black and white dating. When her mother (white) found out she was pregnant out of wedlock and was going to have a ‘black’ child, she was disowned. She then got adopted by a white couple and grew up in an all-white neighborhood.

Much as Kristine’s adoptive parents encouraged her to have a healthy identity and taught her that she didn’t have to absorb black stereotypes to feel strong about her identity she had difficulty in the predominantly white school she was attending where she was berated by teachers and even had her hair set on fire.

Looking back, there are a lot of off-springs of black and white dating who have had to face racial issues and up until 2000, these black-white mixed-race individuals had to choose either black or white as their race while census reports were being filled out.

Today, mixed-race individuals have a separate category. And since this category is fairly new in the U.S. Census Bureau, it’s hard to gauge the exact increase in mixed-race children.

Obama has discussed openly about his own struggle with racial identity and this is making people talking about it in a less painful way. With the increase in black and white dating and marriages over the past two decades, the racial make-up of most communities has changed and so have the attitudes towards mixed-race individuals and families. And with Obama to identify with, most people believe that mixed-race individuals can be themselves and not have to fit in one racial group or the other. His book also makes mixed-race individuals feel that they can go through that struggle and still emerge as respectable persons within the society.