Barack Obama visited Ireland last week, and celebrated his Irish ancestry with a pint of Guinness. His great-great-great grandfather left the village of Moneygall in 1850 in search of a better life. This was a cue for much sneering from right-wing commentators, on Twitter and on the Graham Norton show (!)
For example, James Delingpole in the Telegraph blogs section spewed forth a rant entitled ‘O’bama? Oh Puh-lease!’. The main thrust of the argument seemed to be that Obama embraced whatever side of his cultural background dependent on where he was. What seems to be hard for twits like Delingpole to understand is that a person of mixed race can embrace all aspects of their identity. It’s not rocket science.
President John F Kennedy made a similar pilgrammage to his Irish roots back in 1963. His great-grandfather left County Wexford in 1848 to escape the ravages of the potato famine. I wasn’t around in 1963, but you can bet that Kennedy’s Irish ancestry was not subject to the sneering that Obama’s did last week.
The undercurrent to me seems to be that because Obama has a brown face, celebrating white European roots is somehow inauthentic. The caricature above says it all: ‘isn’t that strange! A brown person wearing a leprechaun hat!’
Coincidentally, a family member sent me some genealogy, tracing a branch of our family through six generations – all in the Manchester / Cheshire area – all the way back to the early 1800s to a chap called John Johnson who was a tailor in the Parish of Rostherne, Cheshire.
Of course this all meant nothing to the racists in the youth who told me to ‘go home’. It meant nothing to the salesman in the posh car dealership I visited recently. When I showed enthusiasm towards a car on display, he enquired whether I could afford it. I was smartly dressed at the time, so I can only assume that he came to this conclusion as he subconsciously concluded that ‘black person = poor’. I bought an identical car from a different dealer.
For most mixed race African/European people our European ancestry means nothing to overt racists, casual racists and the plain ignorant. So while we accept we are ‘black’ in the political sense of the world, we should celebrate and embrace our European roots as much as possible. Not only is it giving the finger to the racists, but it’s also recognition of the fact that without those roots, we wouldn’t be here.
