The politics of racial identity and categorization have perhaps never been as transparent as during the Democratic Party’s electoral race between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama to name a presidential nominee. The two slugged it out toe to toe for the nomination, with Obama emerging as his party’s presumptive nominee, albeit somewhat battle-scarred. As such, he stands a good chance of becoming the nation’s first “black” president.
“Race” became a featured theme in the competition between these two candidates, with the Clinton camp seemingly intent on polarizing the race as being between the “black” candidate, Barack Obama, and the “white” and female opponent, Hillary Clinton. Here the odd parameters of identity politics come into play: In the rigid view of the color-coded categorization of people, Barack Obama is considered “black,” even though his mother is a white woman from
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