People often compare Barack Obama to Martin Luther King, Jr. Two men that are great leaders but who have different backgrounds. By definition, Martin Luther King is an African-American who comes from the descendants of the African Diaspora, while Barack Obama is an American of African descent whose family was not subject to chattel slavery in America. Obama being raised in Hawaii by Caucasian grandparents uses people to find his connection to people whom look like him. The author tells his story to lead his reader to understand his struggles in locating his identity. All through growing up as a Black American, he still was trying to find a connection with those through his relationships and the cultural of the African American Community.
The Civil Rights Movement was very active during the childhood of Barack Obama. Unfortunately, he was in Hawaii during the movement and there was only one recorded event that happened in Hawaii. His parents taught him about racism from an outside perspective. Being that they are white, they could only give him information about bigotry and they were unable to draw from experience. His grandmother, whom he referred to as “Toot,” spoke about an incident where she felt uncomfortable because another black man approached her. Barack did not have to endure the hatred and discrimination that a lot of the Blacks, particularly in the South, had to. He didn’t have a Black community in Hawaii that he could reach out to; instead he would talk to Mr. Frank. Mr. Frank was a good friend of his grandfather and Obama would spend time around the old men like him. His reality was based on living in a non-contiguous state away from the oppression that many Blacks had to face on a daily basis.
While growing up Barack Obama used his relationships with people to find a connection to Black people by doing things that Black people stereotypically do. He would play basketball as a youth. When he was at Occidential College, he joined the Black Student Union. He met and befriended Marcus, who was more of a radical that understood the Black Power Movement. When he moved to Chicago, it was his attempt to understand Black people. He would attend prominently-Black churches to prove his “Blackness.” Previously to marrying a Black woman, he only dated white women. He would hear stories from Black people whom were struggling from his contact with them in Chicago. He felt discouraged and agitated because he often didn’t know what it felt like to grow up in an inner-city.
Barack Obama was disconnected from the struggle because there was no struggle that he could relate to as a Black man. He had only three weeks to spend with his natural father, whom did not grow up in America. He spent many years with his grandparents learning of stories of what they felt it was like to be Black. He moved to an area to be around Black people and with the help of the African American community he was able to learn some of their culture. As a group we believe that sometimes it seems like Obama was trying too hard to understand the struggle. He will never understand our struggle now that he has made it to the White House.
