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View Full Version : Is Vourafakis "black"?


HappyAsHellas
25-02-2015, 10:49 AM
A lot of people have been quite impressed with Greece's new finance minister, but does anyone know if the following is true?

"The 53-year-old has a bachelor’s degree and PhD from the University of Essex and an MSc in mathematical statistics from Birmingham University. It is a mark of his maverick nature that while at Essex, he became the head of the black students’ union after convincing its members that “black” was a political term that includes Greeks."
lord bunberry
25-02-2015, 10:58 AM
A lot of people have been quite impressed with Greece's new finance minister, but does anyone know if the following is true?

"The 53-year-old has a bachelor’s degree and PhD from the University of Essex and an MSc in mathematical statistics from Birmingham University. It is a mark of his maverick nature that while at Essex, he became the head of the black students’ union after convincing its members that “black” was a political term that includes Greeks."
His perfect English is no longer a mystery to me, but there's no way he could be described as black. My grandmother was Greek and she and all the other Greeks I've met are white.
Future17
25-02-2015, 11:40 AM
A lot of people have been quite impressed with Greece's new finance minister, but does anyone know if the following is true?

"The 53-year-old has a bachelor’s degree and PhD from the University of Essex and an MSc in mathematical statistics from Birmingham University. It is a mark of his maverick nature that while at Essex, he became the head of the black students’ union after convincing its members that “black” was a political term that includes Greeks."

How people define race and ethnicity in this context has always been part of debates about racism; I would expect that it would be difficult for a students union to exclude someone claiming to be "black" under racial/ethnic grounds.
HappyAsHellas
25-02-2015, 02:10 PM
His perfect English is no longer a mystery to me, but there's no way he could be described as black. My grandmother was Greek and she and all the other Greeks I've met are white.

All the Greeks I know are white as well, it would just seem a rather impressive speech to convince black people that you were one and the same, I don't think he was trying to claim anything about skin colour.
Phil D. Rolls
03-03-2015, 08:32 AM
He's as black as Joni Mitchell.

Bonkers. (http://junkee.com/joni-mitchell-says-she-feels-an-affinity-with-black-men-because-shes-experienced-being-a-black-guy-on-several-occasions/50877)
Geo_1875
03-03-2015, 09:28 AM
He's as black as Joni Mitchell.

Bonkers. (http://junkee.com/joni-mitchell-says-she-feels-an-affinity-with-black-men-because-shes-experienced-being-a-black-guy-on-several-occasions/50877)

And John Lennon claimed all women are black. The drugs were obviously stronger back then.