 |
Barack Obama is a man who assuredly understands cultural diversity because his own personal heritage is comprised of it. Being born to an interracial, multi-cultual couple--a Caucasian American mother & a Black Kenyan father--isn't the half of it. Obama was first raised in Indonesia by his mother. Then, while of grade school age, Obama moved, without his mother, to Hawai'i, where he would be raised for the rest of his youth by his American maternal grandparents. In Hawai'i, Obama learned what it felt like to be a skinny boy of color, with an odd name, studying & playing among native Hawai'ian and Caucasian non-native Hawai'i residents who'd migrated to the islands from the US mainland & elsewhere internationally. Thus, there wasn't ever a time in Obama's life when he didn't have to bridge these cultural differences. Even though he was raised by his mother's Caucasian parents, Obama identified as Black because of his skin color. As a child he didn't know anything about US Black culture, so he surrounded himself with Black peers and learned. Eight pages of photographs reveal how diverse Obama's family is. Rather than Obama being disadvantaged by this unusual alchemy, eventually, as he matured, he learned to use it to his advantage. Today, with a little bit of hindsight, it seems as if a higher power created a man who would be able to rise to leadership in the great nation of cultural diversity: the United States of America. In this, Obama's first published book, his autobiography up to 1994, the author takes us back to New York, when he first heard that his father had been killed in a car accident. Not quite knowing how to feel about a man he barely had any contact with, his father's death caused Obama to recurt through the history of his multi-cultural family. From the migration of his maternal grandparents out of Kansas to Hawai'i, the loving relationship between his small town Kansas mother & a student from Kenya, his father's return home to Kenya to help others overcome extreme poverty, the intertwined relationships between power, race & ethnicity become much more apparent to Obama. This is one of the most interesting autobiographies because of all of these complexities through which Obama had to navigate his life. This hardback edition is collectible when in mint condition~Read full review
I am white and grew up in Oakland. Most of my friends were black. In the mid 60's, things started to get ugly. Friendships broke apart along racial lines. Even though I was being taught in school that the civil war had ended slavery and America was the land of the free, I was, at age 12, becomming aware of the "original sin" of America that Obama speaks of. Now, at age 55, this book provides some answers to questions that started in my head so long ago. This book is about race and that's a fact. If you are white, you will hear things that you might not ever get to hear any other way. This is a black man speaking to you. He is intelligent and well spoken. He is our President. This is not a political book. If you want that, then read Obama's other book, The Audacity of Hope.
Britney Spears latest plan is worth more than this
Verified purchase: No
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in Books
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on Books
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- You may also like
