President Barack Obama is the first black president of the United States. Just don’t tell that to Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman. Freeman joined told NPR’s Michel Martin Thursday and said Obama isn’t America’s first black president. And he didn’t mention Bill Clinton as the first either. NPR reports:
“First thing that always pops into my head regarding our president is that all of the people who are setting up this barrier for him … they just conveniently forget that Barack had a mama, and she was white — very white American, Kansas, middle of America,” Freeman said. “There was no argument about who he is or what he is. America’s first black president hasn’t arisen yet. He’s not America’s first black president — he’s America’s first mixed-race president.”
Many of Freeman’s films explore important chapters of African-American history: Amistad was about the trans-Atlantic slave trade; Driving Miss Daisy was set in the civil rights era; and Glorycentered on an all-black regiment in the Civil War.
Freeman says he has been disappointed by what he considers unfair treatment of Obama by his political opponents.
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