Why Barack Obama isn't black

Instead, he checked "black, African American or Negro." By doing that, Obama probably did what was expected of him, but he also confirmed an enduring legacy of American racism. According to the Census Bureau, a little over 12 percent of Americans are "black, African American or Negro." According to geneticist Mark Shriver, "the level of European ancestry in African-Americans averages about 20 percent."

Many notable "blacks" have been 50 percent or more "white." These have included many notable Americans who were publicly identified as "black," "coloured," or as "negroes," including Frederick Douglass, NAACP president Walter White (who was one-sixty fourth black), union leader A. Phillip Randolph, and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates.