Is Barack Obama black or white? The last time that question came up about a public figure was in reference to Michael Jackson. While Michael definitely comes from black parents, the president-elect of the United States -- appearance and color of skin aside -- comes from a mixed-race family.

I don't mean to spoil the party, but here is the bad news for African-Americans: Obama is not black. Let me rephrase that. He is not all that black.

To call the winner of Tuesday's election the "first black American" president is a complete misnomer -- if not misleading one -- and unnecessarily perpetuates racial divisions.

A journalist in Hawaii -- where Obama was born and grew up -- reminded me two years ago, just before the 2008 electoral process got underway, that the Democrat senator from Illinois is "as black as he is white".

Born to a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, Obama grew up in a white family environment, but one that was lived in multiracial surroundings in Hawaii (and a brief stint in Indonesia).

So, here is the good news for white U.S. citizens: He is one of you too. You should rejoice at his victory as much as the blacks are.

Obama's victory should be celebrated by citizens of all colors.

Once the party is over, they have to look at themselves and ask the question of how far they have come in terms of Martin Luther King's, "I Have a Dream".

Obama's victory proves that finally, some 40 years since the Civil Rights movement, a non-white (or a half white and half black) U.S. citizen can be elected commander-in-chief. King's dream of his country as a land of equal opportunity and of a land of freedom and justice is already fulfilled.

But have they fulfilled his vision of a nation "where people are not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character"? Hardly.

This election shows that some have been able to get pass the racial division that has colored its politics (pun is intended). But the majority has not.

In spite of Obama's mixed race and upbringing, he is still widely regarded as black. He is still judged by the color of his skin and not by the content of his character.

The African-Americans who turned up out in droves to vote because he is a "brother", the whites who voted against him because of the color of his skin, and the overwhelming pronouncement after Tuesday of the "first black" U.S. president, testify to the unchanging attitudes of most of them when it comes to race.

Institutionally, racism may no longer exist because of its tough laws against discrimination, but when it comes to attitude, racism is as alive as it was during Martin Luther King's days.

The fact that Obama was touted as a black candidate, rather than the great, visionary and promising statesman that he truly is, is a sad reminder that racism is still embedded in its citizens' mentality.

That a person born to mixed-race parents, even if one half is white, is still treated as a Negro is a racial prejudice that can only have come from the white supremacy mentality.

What does it take for a person in the United States to be a "white", and thus enjoy the full rights and privileges of a U.S. citizen?

Asian Americans, especially those from Japan and Korea and lately India, are more integrated and accepted in white neighborhoods and are considered "white". Arab immigrants and their descendants were also considered white, perhaps more because of the color of their money. Of course 9-11 changed all that, and now Arabs, whether Muslim or not, are considered as blacks and subject to racial profiling.

Fortunately, there are enough (white) citizens who see past the color of a person's skin and thus helped Obama get elected on Tuesday. Exit polls showed that the while African-Americans overwhelmingly voted for Obama, 43 percent of white voters voted for the "black candidate". Its racial division is not as black and white as it was some 40 years ago.

And Obama seems to have played along and lived up to his racial designation, perhaps more as an election campaign strategy to win the black votes rather than as a conviction of his racial identity.

At the start of the Democrat primaries in January, most African-Americans were not convinced of his black credentials because he is not a descendant of African slaves as most of them are.

In fact, he had a predominantly white family upbringing, though admittedly, like many African-Americans, he was raised in a single parent family and did not come from a privileged family. Okay, he does attend a predominantly black church and is married to a black -- that makes him black.

But it is clear from his campaign oratories, including Tuesday night's acceptance speech, that his politics and his vision transcends racial divisions and the racist attitudes which still prevail.

If "change" is his platform and is also the main reason why many voted for him on Tuesday, then Obama would do everyone a great service by revealing his true mixed colors and start fighting to eliminate racism in the United States once and for all, and try to fulfill Martin Luther King's dream to the fullest.

At the personal level, the first order of the day for President-elect Obama is to shed the racial identity currently designated to him. The U.S. mainstream media could help by not calling him a black president.

The writer is chief editor of The Jakarta Post.

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