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[scriver]

I can't tell whether you're being heavily sarcastic there or actually buying into the whole birther thing.

That's definitely sarcasm. Does make ya wonder how that idea managed to survive for so long though...

Especially since regardless he would have gotten an American citizenship from his American mother.

I think it probably has something to do with how Americans perceive everyone with the slightest bit of African ancestry as 100% black, as if "whiteness" is the most pure thing ever and if anyone ever gets any black on their family line then they are tarnished for all time like the white sheet you washed with your red jeans by mistake.

So similarly to how say the child of one black and one white parent is always considered 100% black, Obama as the child if a white American and a black African becomes 100% African.

[Starver]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-drop_rule

[Kagus]

Well, see, in order to qualify to become POTUS you need to not only being a US citizen by birth, you also need to have been born in the USA. So although he would still have been a citizen by birth if he'd been born in Africa, because of his mother, he wouldn't be able to become president because he was born in a different country.

This is also the only reason that I can't be president, since I was born in Norway.

[misko27]

It's telling that Birtherism is already so fundamentally absurd that parodying it in order to examine its (il)logical underpinnings is difficult to distinguish from the support of the real thing.

Meanwhile, I had a friend in high school who liked to call himself an African-American. And he was! But people would say "But... you aren't, black." And he wasn't! He was an Arab from Egypt, which is in, you guessed it, Africa!

Well, see, in order to qualify to become POTUS you need to not only being a US citizen by birth, you also need to have been born in the USA. So although he would still have been a citizen by birth if he'd been born in Africa, because of his mother, he wouldn't be able to become president because he was born in a different country.

I'd like to point out that you are presumably basing this off of the requirement that you be a "natural born American citizen", but that term isn't defined in the Constitution. So doesn't necessarily follow that you have to have been born in the US.

Incidentally, this came up in 2016 for Ted "Soviet Canuckistanian" Cruz.

[scriver]

Wasn't a problem for the Mexican born republican running against Obama though, was it? I don't think that law is supposed to mean "was born in the US geographically speaking" but "was an American citizen by blood" (as opposed to an American citizen "by naturalisation").

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-drop_rule

I had read of that before (or rather about the exceptions Georgia or Virginia or whatever ended up putting in their system because having Indian ancestors were popular there - everyone was related to Pocahontas or something) but hadn't thought to put it in this context before. It's pretty much the exact thing I mean, still being the way Americans perceive races today.

Incidentally, this came up in 2016 for Ted "Soviet Canuckistanian" Cruz.

Oh, I thought it was a thing for McHollywoodface Mormonguy? Being born in Mexico on his father's property there or something?

[Starver]

Incidentally, this came up in 2016 for Ted "Soviet Canuckistanian" Cruz.

Oh, I thought it was a thing for McHollywoodface Mormonguy? Being born in Mexico on his father's property there or something?

There's also Alexander Boris de Pfeffel "You can have him...  No, please do!" Johnson.

[Trekkin]

That's definitely sarcasm. Does make ya wonder how that idea managed to survive for so long though...

Partly racism and partly just general-purpose fear of change. Obama could have been born in DC and he still wouldn't have been from the America the old bigots remember growing up with, the one with baseball, Mom's apple pie, white picket fences, back-alley abortions and epidemic lynch mobs. In the America they (mis)remember, in which women were sex toys and people of color were slaves in all but name, there was never any need to vote against a black President because it was simply known that servants weren't put in charge of real people.

Obama's election meant that this particular group had to come to terms with the evident fact that the country as a whole was no longer running under the implicit, automatic racism they recall growing up with (although it's still going strong), unless of course it was not real. Birtherism let it not be real.

EDIT: Just to be clear, I'm not saying they're offended by the end of racism. Of course we're still a crazy racist country. I'm saying that they were offended by having to say "not my President", by that not being simply understood, as unthinkable as if somehow people were going around saying they elected a dog or a domestic appliance and then actually expecting everyone to go along with it. Birtherism was a way to pretend everyone still knew all the distasteful things that were uncouth to have to say.

[Kagus]

It's telling that Birtherism is already so fundamentally absurd that parodying it in order to examine its (il)logical underpinnings is difficult to distinguish from the support of the real thing.

Meanwhile, I had a friend in high school who liked to call himself an African-American. And he was! But people would say "But... you aren't, black." And he wasn't! He was an Arab from Egypt, which is in, you guessed it, Africa!

Well, see, in order to qualify to become POTUS you need to not only being a US citizen by birth, you also need to have been born in the USA. So although he would still have been a citizen by birth if he'd been born in Africa, because of his mother, he wouldn't be able to become president because he was born in a different country.

I'd like to point out that you are presumably basing this off of the requirement that you be a "natural born American citizen", but that term isn't defined in the Constitution. So doesn't necessarily follow that you have to have been born in the US.

Incidentally, this came up in 2016 for Ted "Soviet Canuckistanian" Cruz.

Actually I thought it was an additional requirement on top of having to be a natural born citizen, my mistake.

And yeah, that usage of African-American has always struck me as a bit odd... Like all black people are somehow from Africa and all Africans are black people. And then that's supposed to be the more politicially correct term. But, hell, "black" doesn't really make sense either, unless you've got one of those seriously cool pigmentations from Ethiopia or whatnot...

I'm kinda of the opinion that "Black America" has established itself as a culture and heritage all its own, so it's okay to be "black". Then again, I'm one of those Scandinavian-ancestry people who just about glows in the dark, so what do I know?


On a completely unrelated note, I was thinking back on Trump's comments about hosting the World Cup, and I figured that the best response to that would be to let Mexico host it. Y'know, a place where people actually care about football.

Also it'd just be frickin' funny. Mexicans be stealin' our jobs again!

[Dunamisdeos]

If you look up Egyptian responses to the term, it's actually been an irritation to them for quite a while. I'm not in a place to find the links, but I was reading up on this at one point and found newspaper articles from like, more than 70 years ago.

On a completely unrelated note, I was thinking back on Trump's comments about hosting the World Cup, and I figured that the best response to that would be to let Mexico host it. Y'know, a place where people actually care about football.

Also it'd just be frickin' funny. Mexicans be stealin' our jobs again!

I am in favor of this, if only to see the far right stand on it's head.

[Il Palazzo]

Wasn't McCain born in Panama? I did not hear anyone making a fuss about it when he ran.

[Folly]

Melania is currently announcing 'Be Best', her anti-bullying campaign.

I hate to be critical of someone trying so hard to be selfless and positive...but holy gods, this is just the stupidest shitshow I've ever seen. Everything from the title to the presentation to the fundamental reasoning of the cause, it's all just terrible in every way.

[Trekkin]

Melania is currently announcing 'Be Best', her anti-bullying campaign.

I hate to be critical of someone trying so hard to be selfless and positive...but holy gods, this is just the stupidest shitshow I've ever seen. Everything from the title to the presentation to the fundamental reasoning of the cause, it's all just terrible in every way.

What specifically is wrong with the reasoning? I've only seen the broad strokes, but I don't see anything fundamentally wrong with thinking that kids are interacting with each other via social media in ways their parents don't necessarily have the experience to coach them on.

[Folly]

What specifically is wrong with the reasoning?

Her campaign is essentially the national equivalent of a mother telling her bullied child to just give the bully a compliment and a hug, as if that will make everything better. Meanwhile the child's father is the biggest bully in town...

[Dunamisdeos]

Looks like it's main purpose is driving awareness.

I'm having trouble finding anything negative about this.

[scriver]

Wasn't McCain born in Panama? I did not hear anyone making a fuss about it when he ran.

The Obama birther stuff didn't technically start until after he won though, did it? So it wasn't really on the radar back then. But I might be getting the timescale for when it became a talking point about Obama.

(On an unrelated note I just noticed Obama's initials are B O. Poor guy)