Nouveau visage des Etats-Unis d'Amérique du Nord

Editor's Note: Jennifer Brea is a writer and a graduate student studying political science at Harvard University. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Africa Report, and Ebony Magazine.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- When I was a small child, even before I had the right vocabulary, I could tell that my parents were different.

When I was with my mother, strangers would gush over me. When I was with my father, I felt a distance.

For reasons deeper than I could explain, it was safer with Mom; I was more special when, as far as the outside world could see, I belonged to her.

I later learned this was because people were reacting to the fact that my mother was white and my father black. Like a growing number of Americans, like our new president, I grew up straddling this country's racial divisions.

Barack Obama, America's first black president, is also our country's first biracial president -- no secret, but a fact that, especially in the euphoria of his inauguration, is often downplayed.

The experience of multiracial Americans is as varied and complex as the races and heritages that make up our unique mixes, but when I came of age in the '80s and '90s, it was a world of stark and often strange choices. Race was a set of mutually exclusive, ill-fitting boxes. We were forced to choose just one, to pick sides.

Often, the world chose for us. It was a question not of our culture, or how we self-identified, or even the objective makeup of our DNA, but how we looked.

Tiger Woods, when he rose to fame as America's first black golf star, caused an uproar after he told reporters he was "Cablinasian," a nod to his Caucasian, Black, Native American and Asian ancestry. (He is one quarter African-American.)

It never occurred to Fuzzy Zoeller, who, after the 1997 Masters Championship, made an off-color joke about Woods ordering fried chicken and collard greens for the next year's Champions Dinner, that he might prefer Pad Thai.

The story of my own family was similarly complex. My Anglo-Irish mother is as white as they come. But my father is Haitian, the descendant of West African slaves and French plantation owners, as well as Chinese and Egyptian. And still, growing up, I was asked to choose between one of the two boxes available to me. "Are you black or are you white?"

It took until 2000 before the U.S. Census allowed respondents to check off more than one racial category, a formal recognition that there are no longer two Americas, one black, one white, but dozens, maybe hundreds, of overlapping Americas.

The most recent census predictions hold that by 2042, whites will no longer be the majority. Americans who identify as biracial or multiracial are less than 2 percent of the population, but their demographic is growing at about 3 percent each year, more than 10 times the rate of the white population.

New immigration from Africa and the Caribbean is challenging old notions of what it means to be African-American. As the number of transracial adoptions and interracial marriages increase, the old lines, while far from vanished, are blurring.

At the beginning of his campaign, Obama's exotic heritage was a liability. We had no idea what to do with him because we couldn't place him in any of the familiar boxes. There were charges lobbed against him that he was, on the one hand, not black enough for black America, and, on the other, too black for the white American mainstream.

By telling his story of being raised by white grandparents in Hawaii, their love for him and his grandmother's utterance of racial stereotypes, and his adult quest to connect to his father's Kenyan roots, Obama has changed the entire dialogue about race.

He has managed to accomplish something truly rare: to both carry the mantle of African-Americans' struggle for justice and to transcend it. He is as much the fulfillment of more than 300 years of struggle as he is a symbol of the future: A president who embodies the changing landscape of our imperfect union.

Tuesday, he boldly declared it. In his inaugural address, Obama said, "...our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve...."

When Obama took the stage at Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, on election night, with his family, it was the first time in my 26 years of living I felt like America really belonged to people like me.

If you were to ask me, at that moment, if I was African-American, even though I have blue eyes and fair skin, even though my grandparents came to this country from Haiti, with their own language, their own concepts of race, my answer to you would be a resounding "Yes!"

Without the struggle of brave African-Americans who came before me, my grandparents would not have had the same opportunity to pursue the American dream. We would not be allowed to choose freely whom we love, and I might not even exist.

And yet if you were to ask me, in that same moment, if I were black, or biracial, or a woman of Haitian, Chinese, Egyptian, English and Irish descent, my answer would have been the same.

Before we become a "post-racial" America, we have to become one that is truly multiracial, comfortable with the fact that more and more Americans no longer wear their identities on their skins.

That you might not be able to tell from just looking at a woman if she is Dominican or Brazilian, or the daughter of a Belgian and a Congolese. She might consider herself many things at the same time, without planting a flag or declaring an allegiance.

Obama can help lead us into that new era, toward a more sophisticated conversation about culture and race. He should be celebrated as our first African-American president. He should also be allowed to be Kenyan and Kansan, Hawaiian, Indonesian, Luo -- all the legacies that have made him the man he is today.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jennifer Brea.

Se wishful thinking.SI OBAMA pa reyisi lan misyon l ,yo pa p di se yon "half-breed" se yon moun eritaj miks ,ya p di kareman se yon afriken-ameriken.
Manmzèl BREA ka sonje jan afriken-ameriken yo te pwoteste lè yo te vle mete kategori "mixte" lan lan Sansis.
Yo te reyisi mete l ,men pa gen anpil moun ki ize l.
Ou tonbe lan distenksyon sa a epi w ap vin genyen bagay tankou peyi ispanik yo ki se lan kou ki pou touye koukou an ,yo di yo se nwa.
Rezilta a sa a lan peyi sa yo ,se moun klè sèlman ou jwenn lan klas ki ap dirije yo

Martin Luther King te di ke fok nou pa gade sou koule po yon moun pou nou bali sa li merite.
Se sou karakte e zak pozitif ke moun nan fe pou l'himanite pou nou jije'l.

Gen neg ki san karakte, konsa tou gen blan ki san karakte tou.
Presans Barack Obama nan mezon blanch lan mete plis pressyon sou mwen e sou pitit mwen ki fet o ZetaZini pou yo reyisi tou.
Yo pa gen okenn exkiz konnyen la!!

Sa'm te we pandan tout sememm inoguirasyon sa, tout bal ak meeting ke'm ale, m'pa gen bouch pou'm pale.
Granmoun ki pat gen dwa vote, ki pat gen dwa manje ni domi memm kote ak blan kap kwiye de kontantman e jwa nan ke yo e kê pitit yo.
Yo te gen lontan ke yo tap konbat e frape nan pot jistis ak libete sa, finalman yo jwen li.

Se yon piti l'Afrik ak yon famm blanch ki vinn okipe pi gwo pozition nan peyi a e prete seman nan kapitol e rete nan kay blanch ke esklav yo te konstwi avek fos yo e souwe yo. Se yon pitit ak san esklav ki rete la.

Gen anpil Obama nan lavie sa!!
Gwo kon piti, vizib kon invizib. Pafwa nou pa tande vwa yo, men yo la ap travay an silans.
Wou kap se yon Obama ke wou ye, men se yon lot moun ki pou di wou sa e ba wou vale ke wou merite.

Obama ouvri pot la byen gran konnyen la!! Se nou ki pou kouri antre!!

Non pa gen okenn exkiz anko!!

Revelasyon

Gen yon distenksyon wi Revelasyon.
OBAMA pa desandan esklav non,se madanm li ak pitit li yo ki desandan esklav.
Sa m te vle fè remake peyi an poko pre pou moun ki miks di yo miks e reklame yo de sa.
Mwen te bay egzanp peyi ispanik yo e peyi tankou Brezil;anvan pou yon moun di l se nwa se lè li "ble" sèlman e menm lè sa a l ap di w ke li marabou ou byen de rans konsa.
Lè yo mande OBAMA sa li ye ,misye pa di ke li miks non,misye di kareman ke li se afriken-ameriken.
Si misye lan kòmansman vi politik li te di li miks ,misye pa ta janm rive kote l rive an.Popilasyon nwa a pa t ap aksepte l;pou blan yomenm bliye sa.
Fanm ki ekri atik lan dorijin ayisyen ;ki renmen bagay miks lan men OZETAZINI pa gen sa ;se ou byen w blan,ou byen w nwa.

De gwo nèg sa yo ewo lan lit pou emansipasyon nwa isit ,pa t gen moun miks pa se yo.
Papa FREDERICK DOUGLASS se te yon blan,kanta W.E.B DUBOIS MENM papa manman l-burghardt-se te yon aleman ,sou bò papa l misye se te yon kouzen prezidan BOYER.

SI MICHELLE OBAMA VIVAIT EN HAITI?
par Maurice Celestin, January 17, 2009

Dans trois jours c'est « l'intronisation » du premier président noir américain.

C'est également la prise de logement d'une famille noire à la maison blanche.

Les festivités vont bon train. Les foules sont électrisées.
Sur tout son parcours en train, la famille OBAMA reçoit les ovations et les hommages mérités.

Des gens ont pleuré de joie. Ils se souviennent qu'à un certain moment un noir ne pouvait même pas s'asseoir à coté d'un blanc dans un train.

Ils ont du mal à croire qu'aujourd'hui une famille de noirs occupe la place officielle du train.
Cet évènement me donne à réfléchir. Il me fait penser à mon pays, aux femmes d'Haiti.

Je regarde la fière et belle Michelle OBAMA et je me pose la question:
Et si elle vivait en HAITI?

Tout de suite je me suis souvenu d'un texte que j'avais publié sur Internet en réaction à un courriel de Daly VALET « SI LES CHIENS SE TAISAIENT »

Amis Internautes lisez du début à la fin ce qui suit pour savoir quel sort serait réservé à Michelle OBAMA dans notre pays.

GERARD BISSAINTHE: LE NOUVEAU CHIEN DE DALY VALET
Suite à la lecture d'un texte d'un Internaute ayant pour pseudonyme John Draft DANIES voulant faire croire que le Président Barak OBAMA serait un mulatre,
j'ai apporté les rectifications ci-dessous rappelant que monsieur OBAMA personnellement, se réclame noir, car aux Etats-Unis comme partout à travers le monde , on ne connait que trois races: la race noire, la blanche et la jaune.

Cette mise au point a soulevé la colère et l'indignation de plus d'un surtout de ceux-là qui, grace au fait qu'ils ont eu la chance d'aller à l'école, ont pu avoir le privilège de goùter à
l'amitié de rue de certains amis métis nantis et rappelant, d'aspect physique, le blanc.

Pour pouvoir bénéficier davantage de l'estime de leurs patrons, ces collabos qui vivent de leur plume toujours prets à défendre les intérets des fils adultérens,batards des anciens maitres de leurs grands-parents, s'empressent de passer à la défensive pour dénoncer le problème de préjugés de couleur en Haiti comme étant un problème dépassé, déjà réglé.

En le faisant,ils se présentent, par la même occasion, comme des intellectuels avancés, affranchis, les vrais intellectuels quoi ! Je comprends; ils ont franchi la barre d'acceptation
et ne voudraient en aucune façon perdre cette promotion sociale en restant silencieux devant toute attaque, tout propos visant, comme l'a si bien dit DANIES, la GENTE MULATRE qui veut se rapprocher de plus en plus d'Hélène et s'écarter le plus que possible d'Ebène qui doit rester
dans sa lointaine Afrique oubliée, inconnue au point que madame PALIN s'est mise en tête qu'elle était une ville.

A ces grands blancs-noirs qui ne peuvent pas subir les aboiements des chiens de garde qui veillent sur les acquis des enfants des esclaves arrachés d'AFRIQUE, nous disons que la leçon du Président OBAMA, sera bien apprise par tous les noirs conséquents n'ayant pas honte de leur origine.

A ces pure laine d'HITLER je poserai les deux questions suivantes:

A.- Pouvez vous citer, à votre connaissance, 10 métis haitiens de Port-au-Prince qui ont une femme noire comme épouse?

Certainement on ne pourra pas compter le nombre de noirs à épouser des femmes claires ou blanches.

Ah!oui, car, nos hommes noirs sont très affranchis. Ils dépassent en longueur les métis qui se trainent encore les pattes et refusent de cesser avec cette pratique d'utiliser les filles noires, même très instruites et de bonne famille, comme de simples instruments de plaisir, un trou bon
à déverser leur gourme.

Michelle OBAMA, PREMIERE DAME DU MONDE serait quoi en Haiti malgré ses dimensions?

De toute évidence : La maitresse anonyme d'un métis mais jamais son épouse.

B.- Vos amis métis, en toute franchise, vous font-ils l'honneur de vous inviter chez eux, dans les fêtes qu'ils organisent, (dans les noces ou les anniversaires de naissance) de leurs enfants ?

Soyez sincères.
On a peur de poser le problème mais il existe bel et bien encore.

Mon texte BARAK OBAMA N'EST PAS UN MULATRE nous a fait découvrir combien ils sont encore nombreux les métis ou mieux les mulâtreux qui ont jadis provoqué la colère incoercible de François DUVALIER et de sa horde de criminels.

Je continue à dénoncer les agissements de DUVALIER.
Son instinct criminel n'avait trouvé autre solution que de noyer dans le sang l'arrogance des faux blancs.

Ce despote n'avait pas pensé, de préférence, ouvrir davantage d'écoles afin de donner accès à l'instruction aux fils noirs du pays de même qu'il ne lui était pas venu à l'idée de créer des annexes de toutes les Facultés dans les villes de province et d'avoir ainsi beaucoup plus de professionnels noirs valables qui de par leurs savoirs, leurs compétences et habiletés, seraient en mesure de s'imposer devant ces malades mulâtreux qui n'avaient comme qualité que la couleur de leur peau qu'ils croyaient supérieure à celle des enfants d'EBENE.

Duvalier n'a pas su comprendre qu'il y a de ces bas conflits que seuls le mépris et le savoir peuvent résoudre.

OBAMA et sa femme Michelle, par leur savoir, ont forcé l'admiration de toutes les races du monde.

Ils sont de bons chiens qui font l'honneur de leur race.
GERARD BISSAINTHE ... quel genre de chien est-il.... ?
Lui et moi à quelle race de chien appartenons nous ?


LECHAPEAUTEUR

Maurice CELESTIN

Yon lot fwa anko pep meriken demontre bay le mond antye ke li se yon pep eksepsyonel. Arive lan tet peyi sa a se di jame vi. Eske pa gen rasis bo isit anko? Non. Se pou nou pa bliye ke 48% pep meriken yan pat vote Obama. Antouka Etazini fe yon okenn chenn pa pou li amelyore pwoblem rasyal ki ekziste lakay li. Ke gran met la kontinye peyi sa a.