Are there any white people who are LESS likely to support Obama because he has one white parent that they would be if he had two Black parents? Probably not.

Suppose you conducted a poll and asked white voters if their white neighbors would respond more positively to a Black candidate when the candidate’s white family members campaign with him (even if only through old photographs of these white family members). If 15% of white people say the white relatives’ support would help, then Morgan Freeman is helping Obama with a potentially crucial swing voter group by pointing out that Obama has white relatives.

There’s no downside to this strategy. The fact that some Blacks are perceived as rejecting Obama for not being Black enough only HELPS Obama with whites who want a president who is not “too Black.” Obama benefits with leverage among whites both by having the near total support of Blacks (he comes to the table with a strong base) AND he benefits when some Blacks point out that Obama is half-white, because that makes him more acceptable to at least SOME whites.

Let’s face it: It really IS more likely that a light-skinned brown man like Colin Powell, Harry Belafonte or Barack Obama would be the first man of African descent to be elected president of the United States. Don’t ad agencies still request Black actors whose skin is not too dark?

It doesn’t surprise me that Morgan Freeman asserts that white America accepts Obama more easily because his mother was as white as macaroni. Are you asserting that you know Morgan Freeman to be wrong about this?

American whites and Blacks are still color-aroused and there is still a difference between the reaction to the skin color of a half-white man and the reaction to the skin color of a person with two dark parents who has inherited their dark color.

That doesn’t diminish Obama’s achievements, since electing a man with ANY recent African ancestry remains an exceptional stroke of brilliance. But, to white people, Obama having a white mother as a reference might well have made it easier for Obama to get the job. With all the color-aroused debate over just how alien Obama might be, photographs of his white mother and maternal grandparents are his proof that he is at least half white American and, therefore, not as alien to whites as he might otherwise be.

As far as Morgan Freeman; he’s just an actor, what does he know.