Who's Not Black Enough?

There's been a lot of talk about black Americans being hesitant to support Barack Obama because he's "not black enough," pointing to his white mother and Kenyan father.

I can see people being uncertain about his experience (six years in the state Senate, two years in the U.S. Senate,) but all the reasons not to support someone, this strikes me as absurd.

American political and activist history is dotted with prominent black Americans who were either born in other countries or born to immigrant parents. The famous militant Stokely Carmichael was born in Trinidad. Malcolm X's mother was from Grenada and supposedly fair enough to pass for white. Shirley Chisholm's mother came from Barbados, her father from Guyana. Colin Powell's parents hailed from Jamaica. Walter White, who led the NAACP for 25 years, was blond-haired and blue-eyed and easily could have crossed to the other side. Marcus Garvey was born in Jamaica. W.E. B. DuBois' father came from the Dominican Republic.

So what could be more black than a man whose father came from Africa, a man who is without a doubt, despite the mixed background, classified as black?

Does anyone out there truly believe that this man has no idea of what it feels like to be a black man living in America?