Taking A Second Look At Bi-racial ‘Black’ Leaders

George E. Curry, NNPA

- While Barack Obma was pondering whether to seek his party’s nomination for president, there was another development already taking place in the Black community. More than any time in memory, there has been a growth in the number of people of biracial parentage assuming leadership roles in largely Black cities and organizations. They include Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker, Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and NAACP President/CEO Benjamin Jealous. The lieutenant governor of Maryland, Anthony G. Brown, is also bi-racial.

As with so many things in the African-American community, the issue of color is a complicated one.

From the days slave masters forced themselves on Black women, there have been bi-racial children, some taking on the color of their mother and others looking as white as any White man. Even today, more than nearly 400 years later, some Blacks can still pass for White.

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