These identities are completely arbitrary and build on feelings . We see Obama as African American even through he was not related to the general African American population and he didn’t grow up among African Americans.
First off, I don’t see how this addresses my point. Minorities are mathematically defined, any group that isn’t a majority (or plurality, if you want to count that separately), it doesn’t really matter if randos take notice or not.
Second, maybe you might consider him as such, but I know Obama’s dad was Luo so I’d consider him (partly) Luo-American, which, strictly speaking,
is African-American, just not the same as the “stereotypical” African American who’s a mishmash of like 30 West African, European, and Amerindian ancestries.
Problem there is that “African American” is vague, people
usually use it to refer to the aforementioned group (who could really use a more specific name), since that’s the biggest demographic that falls under the umbrella, but it could just as well accurately apply to a hundred other unrelated groups. Recent immigrants from Nigeria or Ethiopia, Maghrebis or Afrikaners who don’t look stereotypically African, Americo-Liberians who reversed their ancestor’s migrations, you could even count people from Afro-Caribbean groups if you want to.
I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make but I don’t think Obama is a good example, since now I’m just even more confused now that you’ve dropped the bomb of incredibly vague terminology on me.
en.wikipedia.org
