strange situation at the Barak Obama talk page 

Recently I added a single reliably-sourced word, "African," to the list of Barak Obama's mother's ethnic origins near the beginning of the Barak Obama article.  My basic point is that if the article mentions Obama's mother's single Scottish ancestor (who was born 400 years ago), as well as Obama's Irish and Swiss ancestry, then there shouldn't be a problem with an equally-brief mention of her African ancestry. My one-word addition to the article was first modified and then deleted, so I opened a talk page here.  The discussion has taken a disturbing turn, and seems to have hit a nerve of racial discomfort among some wikipedia editors.  In particular, the suggestion to delete the entire list of ethnic origins as a way to avoid adding the word "African" strikes me as a potential public relations black eye for wikipedia, which is why I am making this post here.