"Be Real Black for Me"; or, the One-Drop Rule turned upside-down

More substantive blogging to come, but this got my attention this morning:

Part of the running discussion between my colleague and me that I alluded to here was that my colleague had recently been hearing discussions of the "Is Obama black enough?" meme that appeared shortly after Obama announced his candidacy. While I cannot pretend to speak for any African-Americans or out of the experience of growing up black in this country, I can say that a) I understand what gives rise to such questions; and b) those questions (still) strike me as just a wee bit denigrating of both Obama and, I have to say, the people (blacks as well as whites) asking them: Purity Tests are not a healthy direction for discussions of the politics of race.

Anyway. Here, via Ta-Nehisi Coates from a few days back, is a nice rebuttal from American Exception to all that:

Here is a useful bit of information that we might reflect upon during the next four years: Barack Obama is the President, not the host of Soul Train.

What more needs to be said on this? Here's hoping I'll not again feel the need to revisit this.