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"Dreams from my father" because there were excerpts in it that I felt were reflective of Rev. Wright. I believe his memoir represents Obama's inner beliefs and ideals he sees in america. However, I found issue in some of the excerpts which I felt very uncomfortable with.
This is what Obama stated in his speech today referencing "In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity":
“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”
Here are some quotes from Obama's memoir I wanted to share with GD-P because it made me uncomfortable:
1)“I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.”
In my opinion, he is saying he doesn't relate to the white community and was ashamed of them. I'm not sure where this feeling is coming from.
2)“never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father’s image, the black man, son of Africa, that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself…”
I took this statement as meaning he finds attributes in the black community but wasn't able to find in the white community. Again, this concerns me because I'm not sure where this feeling is coming from.
3)“certain whites could be excluded from the general category of our distrust.”
This concerns me because he is seeing some groups of white communities as distrustful while trusting others, he's grouping white communities in trustworthy and non-trustworthy categories. He's saying he doen't trust some white communities and to the life of me, I can't figure why he feels this way.
4)“To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos."
This means to me he chose his friends based on race and ethnicity and that he was calculating in making sure he was accepted without looking like he was self serving.
5)“It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.”
This bothers me because he seems to be seeking and keeping approval of the black community but he was targeting another race group to strike out against.
6)“There was something about him that made me wary...a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.”
I can't imagine what Obama is thinking in this statement. He was describing his boss when he was a community organizer in Chicago and in my opinion is a conspicuous racist statement.
Maybe I'm looking at these quotes from a different perspective then others would but not knowing Obama personally I have to think there is merit to these quotes. It leads me to believe these quotes embody his ideals and how he perceives america as being black and white but not gray.
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