Sen. Kerry's Wife Claims She Is An African American

I don' t know if this was posted on here (couldnt find it anywhere), but I thought this article from BET was interesting. What are your opinions? Most of the opinions was that she said nothing wrong, But do you think most may question this and could it affect the black vote? And what about the GOP?

First Sister?

Posted August 13, 2004 – The GOP is beginning to play the race card.

In a bold move to attract African American voters in key battleground states, a group of Republicans calling itself People of Color United, has begun running radio ads on Black stations in Cleveland, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Mo., and other urban areas with large minority populations.:: AD ::

The focus of some of these ads: Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry. In one ad, the announcer says “his wife says she’s an African American. While technically true, I don’t believe a White woman, raised in Africa surrounded by servants, qualifies.”

According to news reports, in the 1990s, Heinz Kerry described herself as an African American. But William Marshall, Jr., director of African American media affairs at the Democratic National Committee, says that Heinz Kerry has not described herself as an African American in recent times.

But the issue does come up on the campaign trail. He said that at the recent Democratic Party convention, “a number of female delegates began shouting ‘an African American woman in the White House, an African American woman in the White House.’ That happens a lot whenever she encounters large groups of African American women. Out of love and respect for her, they address her that way.”

Heinz Kerry was born in Mozambique, in south-eastern Africa, to Portuguese parents, and at the convention she affirmed her African roots.

People United, based in Washington, D.C., is the latest in a number of nonprofit groups that is taking out ads to influence the outcome of the upcoming Nov. 2 elections. The group shelled out $70,000 for the air time on the Black stations, and one of its backers, J. Patrick Rooney is the former chairman of Golden Rule Insurance, Co.

Rooney, who is white, told The Washington Post in an e-mail, “I support [the] group because the genuine word for the Black community should be heard, not white folks saying for them.”

In her adult life, Heinz Kerry has become a powerful woman, who like many African American women, is known to speak her mind. She is the head of the $1.2 billion Heinz Foundation., which funds programs in the environment, urban revitalization, the arts and education. Her personal fortune is estimated to exceed $1 billion.

Are you offended that Heinz Kerry is being described as an African American, and by the GOP ads that tell Blacks who qualifies to be African American?