WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman does not recognize President Barack Obama as the nation’s first black president.

Speaking to NPR last week, the actor who starred in “Driving Miss Daisy” and “The Shawshank Redemption” said Obama should not be called the first black president because he’s of mixed race.

“First thing that always pops into my head regarding our president is that all of the people who are setting up this barrier for him … they just conveniently forget that Barack had a mama, and she was white — very white American, Kansas, middle of America,” Freeman told NPR. “There was no argument about who he is or what he is. America’s first black president hasn’t arisen yet. He’s not America’s first black president. He’s America’s first mixed-race president.” Obama’s father was from Kenya.

Freeman also told NPR that he believes the Republican Party purposely refuses to help the president.

“He is being purposely, purposely thwarted by the Republican Party, who started out at the beginning of his tenure by saying, ‘We are going to do whatever is necessary to make sure that he’s only going to serve one term,’” Freeman told NPR. “That means they will not cooperate with him on anything. So to say he’s ineffective is a misappropriation of the facts.”

Freeman won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2004 for “Million Dollar Baby.”