Why is Obama being called the first black president?

Because, his skin does not look like the same color as white people's skin.. White people see him as a black man.... Think about my point, and you will understand why Obama is called the first black president! Even though Obama is mixed, but Caucasian people see him as an pure 100% African American..

People use the words "black" and "African American" interchangeably. And he is the most african american person out there: his father was african and his mother was american. And most "black" people aren't just one race anyhow! I consider myself to be black, but I have cherokee blood. My mother even considers herself to be black and she's half cherokee!!

Well it is indeed the first amongst the presidents of your country isn't it. Most presidents of your country are mostly caucasians or is there any other presidents that was not all white. I think its Obama who broke the traditional way of choosing who will be the next president.

I was wondering that as well as you. I think Obama wants it that way, I think historians want it that way and I think the press wants it that way. It is just like the 'first man to get pregnant' ...hello you have female anatomy and you are a female. our press does not report the news...they write it and twist any way they want/

Your guess is as good as mine! I think it's because people only see the color of our skin and nothing else. Of course he's not actually black...how ridiculous right?

I really do not know what the big deal about his race. I have heard his father was part black and part arab. So if that is true than he is part white, black and arab. But does it really matter. I did not vote for him. But I am kinda tired of hte whole race issue. But my dad brought up a good point. It has hard to tell a black child that you can be anything you want to be and then they look at the history of our presidents and see all white men faces. So I guess we have to work on a woman next so that our daughters can see that it is possible too. Because all they see when they look at all of our presidents are men.

I noticed that too. I mean he is the first President to be half black, but I've noticed that kind of thing in other areas as well. When Halle Berry won an Oscar, everyone said she was the first black female woman to win a Best Actress Oscar. Yet they flashed to her white mother when Halle was giving her acceptance speech. It's a milestone, although it doesn't appear to be recognized in the totally correct way.

That's funny, I was wondering the same thing.

I am not understanding this either. When he continuously through his campaign said that this election was not about race, now that he has won, it is ALL about race - all about what a historic event it is that he has been elected the first African American president. I somewhat see this all as a slap in the face to his white mother who raised him. From my understanding, he had very little to do with his father (or maybe I should say his father had very little to do with him) through his life, but he's certainly capitalizing on that heritage now.

that's not fair regardless of his color/race, he is the first of his kind mixed/african american man(black man)to be named the president of the usa, and have you ever heard him denounce that he's mixed he's not saying that it is his people they are just proud but i'm fairly sure that he know who he is, and where he came from...

The reason he is called the first black president is purely scientific. Lets say I have two bunnies (male and female) one is black and one is white. Now lets say they reproduce. If they have five bunnies there is a higher chance of all the bunnies coming out black, unless the black bunny has a recessive trait. Now back to Obama. His mother was white but his father was black, and while no one is PURELY black anymore black is still a dominant trait. That is when you see bi-racial children most of them consider themselves to be black. People float to other people who are most like them. In this case Barack Obama drifted to african americans because he looked like them more than he looked like Caucasians. I myself am part indian but I don't go around telling people that. So the answer to your question of why Obama is being called the first black president is because he is.