Is Obama black?

U.S. President Barack Obama identifies himself as culturally black, but he is the product of a white mother and a black father. President Obama says the question of his racial identity is a lifelong one with which he grapples.

For the 2010 U.S. Census, President Obama indicated he is black. His father is from Kenya and his mother is from Kansas. His mother and her parents raised President Obama. However, his identification as black comes largely from how society treated him in his younger life.

As a young man, President Obama had trouble hailing cabs and has been mistaken as a valet and waiter. His wife, Michelle, visited a department store after she became First Lady and was mistaken as a store worker.