Barack Obama lived in Hawaii (1961-1967, 1971-1979) till age five and again from age 10 to 18. In between he lived in Indonesia. His mother sent him back to Hawaii at ten for his education. He got into one of the top schools there. Although his mother did return to Hawaii, she often worked abroad. When she did Obama, then known as Barry, lived with her parents, meaning his white grandparents.
In Indonesia Obama was simply a curious-looking American, but now back in America he was black.
Being black meant that the white and Asian girls would not date you unless you were a big sports hero. It meant that people called you names – and wondered why you made such a big deal about it. In sports it meant that less able white players were favoured over you.
It meant that whites tended to keep their distance from you. It meant that when they were nice to you it was done kind of as a favour – not out of any true respect.
It meant always living in someone else’s world where they made the rules. Where escape would be just that – escape, and therefore defeat.
His father was black and understood Hawaii better than most. But he was in Africa. He sent letters but they made little sense to Obama.
Obama’s family in Hawaii was white. They did not understand.
His best friend in high school was Ray, one of the few blacks at his school. Ray seemed to understand Obama better than anyone. And he got him into all the black parties – where the girls would take him seriously. Ray also had strong opinions about being black.
But Ray was only two years older than Obama and did not have all the answers.
So Obama shut himself in his room and read book after book by black authors like Baldwin, Ellison, Wright and Langston Hughes. Looking for answers. But, except for Malcolm X, being black always ended the same way: in bitterness and defeat.
One day he found out that his white grandmother was afraid of black men! And yet she loved him dearly and gave up so much for him. How could that be?
There was an old black poet that Obama knew, wise in years. He said his grandmother was right to be afraid: she knew blacks deep down hated her as a white person. He also told Obama that no white person could ever fully understand what it was to be black. Nor could any white person ever be fully trusted.
And yet Obama’s mother was white. Unlike Malcolm X, the white side of him was something he would have to make sense of and face up to sooner or later.
Although Obama seemed happy on the outside, on the inside he was torn apart by questions of who he was. He turned to drink and drugs to push those questions out of his mind.
See also:
- “Dreams from My Father”, a book by Barack Obama, which is where I got most of this account from.
- Barack Obama
- Obama in Indonesia – where he was before Hawaii
- Obama at Occidental College – where he went next
- Race in America
- America
I trust nothing about Barry Soetoro NOTHING his name is not BO.
He took that name off of his father’s tomb stone because he thought it was catchy.
He was born in Africa and he is citizen of Indonesia he is not American nor will he ever be and I don’t care about his turmoil I just don’t care.
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I trust nothing about Barry Soetoro NOTHING his name is not BO.
He took that name off of his father’s tomb stone because he thought it was catchy.
He was born in Africa and he is citizen of Indonesia he is not American nor will he ever be and I don’t care about his turmoil I just don’t care.
Yet another casualty of Poe’s Law.
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Wow. Unbelievable what the tinfoil hat brigade is coming up with these days, isn’t it? 😀
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it’s amazing how people still think so ignorant……………… tsk tsk tsk!!!
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Factually incorrect bio.
Stanley Ann Dunham aka Mrs. Barack Obama, aka Mrs. Anna Obama began classes at the University of Washington on or about Ausut 19, 1961, just 2 weeks after he was born. The U of Washington has confirmed this and a local telephone listing shows her as “Mrs. Anna Obama.”
WND interviewed a woman in Washington who babysat for BHO Jr. while “Anna Obama” was attending night classes at the U of Washington.
For some reason, Obama has tried to sweep under the rug the fact that he and his mom moved to Seattle WAshington shortly after his birth. Dreams From My Father states that Obama Sr. left Hawaii in 1963, but all other sources say he left in summer of 1962 to move to Cambridge MA to attend Harvard.
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I always love how the people who complain about PRESIDENT Obama make an issue about a birth certificate. If the country of birth is such an issue, then why do they never say ONE WORD about their war hero, John McCain? What’s the excuse there, eh?
Speaking of that, when is McCain going to quit playing the ‘POW card’? Isn’t that becoming a tired excuse as to why he feels qualified to be POTUS?
Why can’t they just be honest? They’re afraid because a person with darker skin is in the white house – that’s the bottom line!
* shakes head and walks away *
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That is so right—-McCain was born in Panama on a U.S. Army base, yet that was rarely brought up during the campaign. But all these idiot racists kept screaming that he couldn’t possibly be American simply because he’s black—screw those idiots. He became president anyway. I’ll bet they miss him now compared to the current idiot fool that’s in the WH now.
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@ squeesh
Oh please, they are the same fools who voted for Trump and who still think he is doing a good job. They do not miss Obama one bit. He was a stain on the nation in their eyes. Thank God Trump is setting things straight.
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Obama is the closest thing to a Asian/PI in office America will ever get in my life time.
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