What's your story?

I listened to Barack Obama's speech in snippets this morning between getting kids to school and other obligations. I usually keep KQED, my local NPR station, on while I'm at home so all day long I heard more sound bites as they pertained to the on-going analysis from every angle.

I read the text while I had lunch, but I didn't get to watch the speech until tonight, when I stole away to bedroom while J., my husband, got the girls ready for bed.

Listening and reading is not like watching.

Several minutes into the speech, Obama was saying:

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

And it was at that point that Wallie, my preschooler, came in and flopped on the bed next to me. She peered at the screen, looked at me with a smile and said, "Obama!"  Then she asked, "What's Asian?"

I put YouTube on pause.

I looked at Wallie with her blonde-streaked hair, ivory skin, and beautiful brown eyes and said, "Asian is you. And me. It's Korean and Chinese and Japanese and Thai and Indian..."

She smiled as if she understood.

Obama's stump speech often includes some version of his "story," and in today's speech it went like this:

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

And as he was speaking his words, I was replacing them with my own "story" right along side him.

I am the daughter of a white man from Italy and a Korean woman from Hawaii. My Italian grandfather was an official in Mussolini's administration during World War II and my Korean grandfather was a young father with two small children when he witnessed "the day that shall live in infamy" first hand. I went to one of the best prep schools in America (the same one that Barack Obama went to) and two, fine Jesuit institutions. I am married to a white American who carries within him the blood of one of our nation's most beloved historical figures and America's indigenous people - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of many races and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

(But I would add, that in a magical place like Hawaii, not only is it possible, but it's normal to have a story like this.)

I have seen racism affect my family first hand. People presume the most ignorant things when you look different or have an unusual-sounding (to their ears) name. It did not stop my mother from being successful. It did not stop me or my siblings. I was raised to believe that I could write my own destiny.

I saw myself in Barack Obama today. I saw my daughters in Barack Obama today. I felt his heart in my heart, and I know, as I watched him give his amazing, inspiring, and unprecedented speech, that I was looking at the next president of the United States.

What's your "only in America story?"

 

 

 

Comments

[jaelithe]

I wrote a whole series about my family's American story, and my own struggles with racial identity, back in 2006, on my blog. It starts here, if anyone is interested:

http://jaelithej.blogspot.com/2006/05/tangled-roots-part-i.html

One of the reasons I enjoyed reading Dreams from My Father so much is that I felt I could relate to Obama's sense of not knowing where he fit in as a child.

[jaelithe]

Oh and of course I just realized I was dumb at the time and didn't go back and link the first post to the second and third after I'd finished. So here are the other parts:

http://jaelithej.blogspot.com/2006/06/tangled-roots-part-ii.html
http://jaelithej.blogspot.com/2006/06/tangled-roots-part-iii.html

[Mamikaze]

My husband and I are constantly pondering the race question. We are a "bi-racial couple" in a predominantly white town. We were happy to see that our daughter's Kindergarten in diverse. I will have to write about this topic soon.

[Dena]

I am the daughter of a brown man from Colombia and a white woman from Connecticut. My white grandfather was an air force pilot who was shot down and then led 11 men in an escape from a prisoner of war camp in Romania in World War II, and my Colombian grandfather was an ambassador to Ecuador and a father to his 9 children after his wife died in childbirth when my father was 2 years old. I was lucky enough to grow up in the Bay Area and went to public schools and then attended one of the best prep schools in America. I worked hard to graduate from one of the finest colleges in the nation – a proud moment for my father, who had to drop out of school after 9th grade. I am married to a white American from the heartland – Indiana – who carries within him the blood of his German and Dutch immigrant ancestors who came to this country seeking a better life in the late 19th century – an inheritance we will pass on to our children someday. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

[D]

On a sidenote... to everyone who is voting for Hillary simply because they want to see a woman in the White House: we assume too much, I think. What if Obama were to pick a vice president who was the most kick-ass woman you could possibly have imagined -- whose progressive politics make Hillary Clinton look positively outdated? As a red-blooded liberal and progressive woman, the thought of this woman in the White House makes my heart sing.

Who am I talking about? She's an elected official in the midwest, and she rules. I can't reveal more than that, but I will put that out there: let's not assume that Hillary is our only option for getting a woman (or a kick-ass one, at that) in the White House. The truth is that Obama is waiting to do just that -- he just needs the nomination first.

Now LET'S GIVE IT TO HIM. (And to her -- the future amazing Vice President!)

[cynematic]

D, I am just going to come out and say it: Obama-Sebelius '08!

Don't vote for any candidate/woman, vote for the BEST candidate/woman!

If we had an Obama-Sebelius '08 ticket, maybe we could win not 4, not 8, but 16 years in the White House.

I say get Obama to nominee first, then let's push hard for Sebelius.