Jesse Jackson Endorses Barack Obama

However, I still wonder whether Obama will really be embraced by average black Americans as one of their own since, in so many ways, he is not one of them:

1. He's half-white.

2. His ancestors didn't come to America as slaves. Instead, his father came here as a college-student (and then went back to Africa).

3. His black ancestry is East African, whereas most black Americans are descended from West Africans. (I doubt this will actually present a problem, since the ethnic differences that exist among Africans aren't noticed that much by most Americans of any race.)

4. He was raised by his white mother, her parents, and his Indonesian step-father.

5. He didn't grow up in Chicago or Harlem or Mississippi, but instead in Hawaii and Indonesia.

6. His childhood was privileged by white American standards.

Some columnists (black and white) have commented on this issue, but I wonder how much kinship average black Americans feel to Barack Obama. More importantly, I wonder how much kinship they will feel to him after the newness wears off and they have to choose among him and Hillary and Edwards.