AP: Hip to be a mutt as white population declines
It popped out casually, a throwaway line as he talked to reporters about finding the right puppy for his young daughters.
But with just three offhanded words in his first news conference as president-elect, Barack Obama reminded everyone how thoroughly different his administration — and inevitably, this country — will be.
“Mutts like me.”
Bynow, almost everyone knows that Obama’s mother was white and father wasblack, putting him on track to become the nation’s firstAfrican-American president. But there was something startling, andtelling, about hearing his self-description — particularly in howoffhandedly he used it.
The message seemed clear — here is a president who will be quite atease discussing race, a complex issue as unresolved as it isuncomfortable for many to talk about openly.
And at a time when whitesin the country are not many years from becoming the minority.