Obama's race is irrelevant, he is a very charismatic and thoughtful candidate. He seems to have the spark of greatness to him which I think is what makes this good enough to cross to hacker news. A lot of successful entrepreneurs also have great charisma.
If Obama matters to you, you'd better start thinking about his race, since it's been his obsession for decades.
Edit: and don't forget his scary church: http://www.tucc.org/about.htm . It's as bad as Romney's church was thirty years ago.
Meanwhile, intelligent black people have to think about their race in no small part because some douchebags (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=88082) still hold discriminatory viewpoints against people due to their race. It's a shame it's that way, but there's documentary evidence that this sort of discrimination still exists.
Have you ever been a minority anywhere? I only lived in Japan for about a year, but I was very aware of how differently I was perceived as the tall white guy. I don't see how you can grow up black in the U.S.A. and not have that be a fundamental part of shaping your experience, especially when you consider the racial history here. Add to that his white mother and time living outside the U.S., that is a lot of influences to assimilate.
I'm not sure what your point about the church is. Yes, it is very pro-black and pro-African, but I don't see anything that is explicitly "anti" anyone else.
Would be interested to see the welcome for a white person walking in on Sunday, though. :) Having said that, I did go to a church once where ours was the only white family among black Haitian immigrants. And that was a pretty cool experience.
It's the sole constant. When he was a lawyer, he was a race lawyer. When he was a writer, he was a race-writer. When he was an activist, he was a race-activist.
I think it would be fair to say that Obama's ethnic background means a lot to him -- look at his senate race against Alan Keyes. Keyes seems to define himself as a rhetorically brilliant ultra-conservative, not as a black man. Even though he's ethnically and culturally much blacker than Obama, and his political career has been with the Republican party, which is notoriously clumsy about racial issues.
Have you ever been a minority anywhere?
I lived in Bedford-Stuyvessant for a while. It wasn't exactly pleasant, but I don't plan on spending my entire professional career getting over strangers referring to me as "White boy!" or jumping me for my iPod.
Yes, it is very pro-black and pro-African, but I don't see anything that is explicitly "anti" anyone else.
Many hate groups are not explicitly 'anti' anyone. You don't have to hear much about how someone "Favors preserving the White culture, and the White people as a race..." to know that you're hearing about the Klan.
Would be interested to see the welcome for a white person walking in on Sunday, though. :) Having said that, I did go to a church once where ours was the only white family among black Haitian immigrants.
I've attended the "Rock Church" in St. Louis (http://www.stalphonsusrock.org/), which is quite an experience. But they don't have to push a black power message to follow a Christian message as blacks.
Those 'douchebags' have been pretty well marginalized. Nobody talks about those data when creating race-sensitive laws or corporate policies. I mean, a Nobel Prize-winning geneticist got fired over mentioning that information offhand. It's hardly mainstream if one of the preeminent scientists of the last century can't even afford to speculate about whether or not it might be true.