I started Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.
The
book is about Barack Obama's quest to learn about his father, an
educated Kenyan man whom Barack apparently did not know that well
because the father was in Kenya trying to help his native country. In
my latest reading, Obama talks about hearing stories about his father
from his white grandparents on his mother's side----how they described
him as a confident person, one who was even able to make a white racist
at a tavern feel guilty and pay for his drink. Obama also discusses his
grandparents. They lived in Texas, but they moved to Hawaii for
employment opportunities and also because they did not care for the
racism in Texas. As Obama says, they didn't exactly know about the word
"racism", but they believed that people should be treated right.
I
enjoyed some of what Obama said on page 4. He talks about a time when
he was comfortable with solitude, and he knew an old man who lived next
door to him who also was somewhat of a loner. Obama helped him carry
his groceries up the stairs. I liked this story because it made me feel
all right to be an introvert, and yet it also teaches me to try to
understand others and to help them out when I can.
Obama also
mentions his birth certificate on page 26, as he talks about finding an
article about his father: "I discovered this article, folded away among
my birth certificate and old vaccination forms, when I was in high
school."