In response to both of your blogs in one swoop:

Tell me how you think it is then that President Clinton is often referred to as the first black president, and has gotten away with that for so long?

If I remember correctly (and if I don't, please tell me) polls indicated that most black people were in favor of Sen. Clinton over even Sen. Obama early on in the primaries.  It wasn't until black people saw that Obama actually had a chance against Clinton that they jumped ship into his camp.  All the while, he managed to gather these votes without trumping up the race card.

Clinton is far from the first black president.  You can start with Abraham Lincoln who worked courageously (and  very carefully) to bring about the emancipation proclamation.  Or you can start with Harry Truman, who worked to give blacks equal chance within the military - a move that proved to be an extraordinary power to the civil rights movement.  Or you can start with Lyndon Johnson who pushed a major civil rights agenda on the federal level.  To a very minor degree, you could even start with George Washington himself, who expressed misgivings over slavery after seeing blacks fight in the war, and was the only prominent founding father to emancipate all of his slaves upon his death.

Compared to ANY of these men, how is it that Clinton can get away with this title of being the first black president?  You talk about blacks being exploited, and I think you are right.  Solutions DO come from both sides of the isle, and the true heroes often fail to get the credit they deserve.

Thank you for your questions Ike.

I have a few answers, which will take some time and a bit of research to hit all the points and give some references.

I just finished subbing in a ninth grade English class. You know what they are like on Friday afternoons in May. So I'll be back to posting on this after a bit of rest.

But briefly, it was esteemed author and poet Maya Angelou said that Clinton was our first black president. She assigned that label to him because he spent an enormous amount of time visiting black inner cities.

He also included African Americans in many of his influential circles -- For example, Bill Clinton made a record number of appointments of black federal judges.

There is also a geneological research book, for which I will find the reference, that makes a case that Bill Clinton actually is -- biologically --a black man with very fair skin.

Blacks have felt like he was one of us. As one woman put it after a Clinton speech in New York City: "I can't imagine George W. Bush standing on a corner at 125th Street in Harlem," where Clinton had just spoken. Conversely, the Republicans have been criticized for their "Southern Strategy" -- essentially writing off the black vote and going full throttle with the Bible belt.

There are several other reasons why the Clintons and blacks have been so close, some real, some not so valid -- but the loyalty was there nonetheless.

I will get into those after I come down from this subbing anxiety.