Opinion: Obama’s reelection bid: Has Obama alienated 9 million multiracial voters?
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President Obama formally announced his 2012 reelection bid Monday, but has he already alienated 2.9% of the population for only checking ‘black’ on his 2010 census form? Should he have copped to his multiracial status for both a teachable moment and political gain?
That’s the topic of Gregory Rodriguez’s Monday column, in which he points to a growing trend of people who identify themselves as ‘multiracial.’
On the one hand, Rodriguez argues:
It could have been a historic teaching moment. Instead, President Obama, the most famous mixed-race person in the world, checked off only one race -- black -- last year on his census form. And in so doing, he missed an opportunity to articulate a more nuanced racial vision for the increasingly diverse country he heads.
On the other hand, as Rodriguez points out, identifying himself as black has helped Obama’s political career, which was viewed DOA during his early years in Chicago because he wasn’t black enough. Representing the other side of the argument, Rodriguez interviewed San Francisco State University political scientist Robert C. Smith, who supports Obama’s course of action:
‘Obama made the politically correct choice. If he had come to Chicago calling himself multiracial, he would have had no political career. And I think if he called himself multiracial now, black people would see it as a betrayal.’
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--Alexandra Le Tellier
President Obama. Credit: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images
