All this discussion about what percentage black or white he is is irrelevant.

No humanbeing has the same skin colour as any other human being.

When my daughter asks about these issues I put her hand next to mine and show that our skins are different.

I then tell her tha everyone is different and unique and special and that is what make life special.

But in political terms, if you ask any black or dual heritage american what their ethnic classification is, they will identify with each other as being black.

In terms of the old political structures, Obama would have been described a coloured man. No one would have given a damn whether he had a white grandmother or a chinese nanny.

Which toilets would he have had to use?

Where would he have had to sit on the bus?

You know the answers and you therefore know that arguing about the exact hue of his particular genetic strain is a red herring.

And it may have had a pink grandmother for all I care.