Annette John-Hall | 'Black enough'? Enough's enough

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, March, 2007 | by Annette John-Hall Inquirer Columnist

Is Barack Obama Irish enough?

I know the question sounds strange. It's a little like asking whether Donovan McNabb runs around yelling  Erin go bragh!  on St. Patrick's Day.

But it's no more odd than African Americans asking whether Obama is black enough, a question that's raging everywhere, from neighborhood barbershops to  60 Minutes profiles.

I never questioned whether Obama understood the souls of black folks. But since he announced his candidacy for president, Obama's heritage has been picked apart ad nauseam, not by I-Won't-Vote-For-A-Black-Man whites, but by some of his own.

African Americans are debating whether a black man born of an African father and a half-Irish mother, raised without the...