From almost the moment Barack Obama merged as a potential nominee for the presidency of the United States, there has been a percolating issue amongst people of color, mostly African Americans, concerning the question of his Blackness. And because it’s made its way from the barbershops to the blogs, to even, television, I became quite curious as to the underlying issues surrounding this issue of race and achievement. Why are we of all people, saddling this young man with this, in 2007? Well, at some basic level—it’s our problem, not his, our problem, not America’s.

Amongst African Americans there is an unwritten rule that one must earn the right to be mainstream, to be sought after by white American commerce, politics, and institutions. It is said that the product of a white mother and African father has not earned the right to sit at this great seat of power, to have the advantage of being the real ‘first” as Senator Biden described —, “so fresh, so new, so clean,” without paying the city rights poll tax of blood, sweat and tears common to the civil rights agenda of Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton. There is a sense that Obama thinks he has transcended the injustice ideological agenda that absorbs much of 21 st century racial politics in this country. There is a sense that Obama—this bi-racial son of elite universities, who overcame class divisions— thinks he has arrived.

You will recall that then Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder was launched at one time for president with much excitement and while people still clamor for Colin Powell, there is a sense that Obama represents the best shot, the first shot for the ultimate achievement of the White House. Then why are we giving Obama such a hard time?

Part of the issue rests within our own cultural identity of “blackness.” From the barbershop, I hear “…we want a real Black American”— both parents must be card carrying Negroes with bloodlines pure and traceable. Well, that’s a tall order given our historical baggage. Ask Rev. Sharpton, who has just uncovered interesting relationships in his own family tree. Some want a more “down brother,” someone who’s battled his way up, rung by rung, sprung from wrenching poverty to the mainstream. Some just want someone who represents them in a way they can recognize. Clearly, for some, Obama doesn’t represent their notion of Hollywood casting for a Black presidential candidate.

I offer that this is their burden and not, his.

Barack Obama began his public career as a community activist, pushing for voter registration and better public housing. He has long championed the underdog, the down trodden, the hopeless and helpless. He emerged as voice of unity and civility in the Unites States Senate during his short tenure there and, most notably, he speaks his mind, honestly and with conviction. When he spoke at the Democratic Convention in July of 2004, people were stunned at the clarity of his message to all Americans, Black, White, Latino and Asian, let’s stop the name calling and get down to the business at hand.

Obama is a by-product of our post civil rights integration agenda. He couches his ideologies amongst an independent’s way of thinking, no populist Democratic machine in sight. But what is most interesting is that Obama has defied traditional labels of what it means to be a Black politician for Whites as well as Blacks. And this makes some African Americans, frankly, uncomfortable.

Whatever issue you choose to define your support of any of the presidential candidates, you can safely cross the question of degree of Blackness off the list for consideration.

Rev. Jackson is pastor of St. Matthew A.M.E Church, Orange, NJ and Executive Director of the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey.