Lakhota
Diamond Member
President Obama's ancestry has always been a hot topic. Between the birther debates that the Supreme Court dismissed last month to the country's differing opinions about his race, the commander-in-chief's biological roots have long been a hot-button issue.
But the most recent discovery into the president's complicated genealogy will likely fuel even more chatter.
According to the New York Times, a team of genealogists have discovered the president's slave ancestry.
As the son of a Kenyan father and white American mother, Obama is an African-American in the most literal sense. But until now Obama's African American cred in a more contemporary sense had been a source of debate, since unlike most American blacks he was not thought to have descend directly from enslaved Africans.
However, the researchers say that not only did the president descend from an enslaved African, his ancestor was likely the first ever documented black slave in America. Furthermore, Obama's slave heritage unfurls from perhaps the most unlikely familial line: his white mother.
More: Barack Obama's Slave Ancestry Discovered By Researchers
Obama Has Ties to Slavery Not by His Father but His Mother, Research Suggests - The New York Times