Due to the often political and cultural contours of blackness in the United States , the notion of blackness can also be extended to non-black people . Toni Morrison once described Bill Clinton as the first black President of the United States , because , as she put it , he displayed " almost every trope of blackness " . Christopher Hitchens was offended by the notion of Clinton as the first black president , noting , " Mr Clinton , according to Toni Morrison , the Nobel Prize-winning novelist , is our first black President , the first to come from the broken home , the alcoholic mother , the under-the-bridge shadows of our ranking systems . Thus , we may have lost the mystical power to divine diabolism , but we can still divine blackness by the following symptoms : broken homes , alcoholic mothers , under-the-bridge habits and ( presumable from the rest of Arthur Miller 's senescent musings ) the tendency to sexual predation and to shameless perjury about same . " Some black activists were also offended , claiming that Clinton used his knowledge of black culture to exploit black people for political gain as no other president had before , while not serving black interests . They cite the lack of action during the Rwandan genocide and his welfare reform , which Larry Roberts said had led to the worst child poverty since the 1960s . Others cited that the number of black people in jail increased during his administration
Rwandan genocide
Rwandan genocide
Black people