When are Black people Black?

On this business of race and authenticity: it’s striking that the most viable black Presidential candidates each party has produced to date – Barack Obama, Colin Powell – are both almost entirely removed from the black experience in America. General Powell is less “African-American” than Jamaican-British – had he run and won, he won have been the first President to be the son of British subjects since the early 19th century. His autobiography is full of observations about the difference between his background and those of most blacks: