I know I'm going to get flack for this but:?

American is a culture...and a richly diverse culture. The key operative is the hyphen. I could paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt on the subject, but you can read his essay at the following link. His words hold the same truths today.

http://www.hornmouthpiece.com/Americanism.htm

As far as genetics go, the linage can be traced through the father as far back as there are ancestors, but the trail gets cold quickly tracing back through the mother.

I think we should be called american, period, also!

But real life doesn't necessarily work the way we want it to. "Race" is a biological fiction, but it's also a cultural reality. Barack obama was born from a black father, and raised as a black man. So we call him black. For now, that's just the way things are.

Denial of that cultural reality doesn't usually help matters very much, particularly because it's such a strong reality for so many people. So we accept it, while at the same time remembering that it's a creation of our minds, and not a genuine observation of something real.

This is actually a good Question that needs a real answer.

The one-drop rule was a tactic in the U.S. South that codified and strengthened segregation and the disfranchisement of most blacks and many poor whites from 1890-1910. After Supreme Court decisions/ and the "reconstruction era" White-dominated legislatures felt free to enact Jim Crow laws segregating Blacks in public places and accommodations, and passed other restrictive legislation, It used to be, whatever the color your mother was, was your "racial background" and during slavery, the mother was usually black, so this excluded her and her offspring from the great things america had to offer.

part of it i think comes from several things:

1. the one drop rule, that classifies anyone having 1/8 or more Black blood as being considered Black and/or African American.

2. it depends on the laws of the state in which you are living in. for instance, in some states you inherit your race, status, etc. from your mother, and some states from your father. in some southern states you are considered at birth the race that your mother is. for instance, if there is a Black mother who has a child with a White father, then their children are considered to be Black because their mother were considered to be Black. its not right, someone should have the right to choose...

3. some parents give their children a choice, and if he possibly identified better with Blacks/African Americans, he may have choosen that way.

just a thought is all...hope that helps in understanding...

Halle Berry lists herself as an African American, and she's half white. Nobody gave her grief about it. Why do people keep giving Obama grief for making the same decision?

I think Chanell C had the correct answer, I was told the male dominates so it goes by the race of the father who happens to be African American.

Simple answer: to get votes, to be known in history as "the first African American president"

It would be a noble achievement, too bad he didn't actually attain it. Well, I guess he halfway did.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he was elected. But it is kind of funny.

Well it mostly goes by the race of the father and his father is African so he's African American.

I have asked the same question. He is just as much white as he is black which makes him bi-racial.

It isn't just him it is anyone, for the most part, who is half black. They just use it for their advantage. It wouldn't be "change" if he were just another old white guy.