Is President Obama a black person?

Answer 1

Yes and no. He is actually biracial, since his mother was white and his father was black. But historically, if a person had skin that was darker than white, that person was considered black, rather than biracial. This is a legacy from the old segregation era, when if you had "one drop" of black blood, you were considered black and forced to live in a segregated neighborhood. As a result, light-skinned black people tried to "pass" as white so they could live in better neighborhoods and attend better schools. Today, even though we no longer live under segregation, the custom of categorizing a biracial person as black still persists.