Re: Quotes from Obama books

Skipper wrote:
You've all read this, right?

You still sending around e-mails that were shot down in May, Skip Press?

From Dreams of My Father:

Title of book: Dreams From My Father.

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.

Full quote: "When people who don't know me well, black or white, discover my background (and it is usually a discovery, for I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of twelve or thirteen, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites), I see the split-second adjustments they have to make, the searching of my eyes for some telltale sign. They no longer know who I am. Privately, they guess at my troubled heart, I suppose - the mixed blood, the divided soul, the ghostly image of the tragic mulatto trapped between two worlds. And if I were to explain that no, the tragedy is not mine, or at least not mine alone, it is yours, sons and daughters of Plymouth Rock and Ellis Island, it is yours, children of Africa, it is the tragedy of both my wife's six-year-old cousin and his white first grade classmates, so that you need not guess at what troubles me, it's on the nightly news for all to see, and that if we could acknowledge at least that much then the tragic cycle begins to break down...well, I suspect that I sound incurably naive, wedded to lost hopes, like those Communists who peddle their newspapers on the fringes of various college towns. Or worse, I sound like I'm trying to hide from myself. "

I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and
animosity against my mother's race.

Quote doesn't exist in either book.

There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of
himself, maybe. And white.

Actual quote: "Now he was trying to pull urban blacks and suburban whites together around a plan to save manufacturing jobs in metropolitan Chicago. He needed somebody to work with him, he said. Somebody black. ...

He offered to start me off at ten thousand dollars the first year, with a two-thousand-dollar travel allowance to buy a car; the salary would go up if things worked out. After he was gone, I took the long way home, along the East River promenade, and tried to figure out what to make of the man. He was smart, I decided. He seemed committed to his work. Still, there was something about him that made me wary. A little too sure of himself, maybe. And white - he'd said himself that that was a problem."

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 quote "is from a section when Obama was a college student and wrestling with his identity including as an African-American. The quote describes his observation of what was required among his fellow students."

I 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, the attributes of
Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.

The more complete quote is, "All my life, I had carried a single image of my father, one that I had sometimes rebelled against but had never questioned, one that I had later tried to take as my own. The brilliant scholar, the generous friend, the upstanding leader—my father had been all those things. All those things and more, because except for that one brief visit in Hawaii, he had never been present to foil the image, because I hadn’t seen what perhaps most men see at some point in their lives: their father’s body shrinking, their father’s best hopes dashed, their father’s face lined with grief and regret.

Yes, I’d seen weakness in other men—Gramps and his disappointments, Lolo and his compromise. But these men had become object lessons for me, men I might love but 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, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela. And if later I saw that the black men I knew—Frank or Ray or Will or Rafiq—fell short of such lofty standards; if I had learned to respect these men for the struggles they went through, recognizing them as my own—my father’s voice had nevertheless remained untainted, inspiring, rebuking, granting or withholding approval. You do not work hard enough, Barry. You must help in your people’s struggle. Wake up, black man!

Now, as I sat in the glow of a single light bulb, rocking slightly on a hard-backed chair, that image had suddenly vanished. Replaced by…what? A bitter drunk? An abusive husband? A defeated, lonely bureaucrat? To think that all my life I had been wrestling with nothing more than a ghost! [Page 220]

From Audacity of Hope:

I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an
ugly direction.

Inaccurate quote.

Actual quote: "Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."


[ref: <http://www.truthorfiction.com>]
[ref: <http://www.factcheck.org>]
[ref: <http://www.snopes.com>]


***

Have you read the books, Skip Press, or just the inaccurate leftovers re-hashed in e-mails circulating the Web in the closing days before the election?

Well, there's no problem with that. McCain is running ads whose accuracy was shot down months back too.

Anything goes for those who have no honor to lose.


--
Sal

Ye olde swarm of links: thousands of links for writers, researchers and the terminally curious <http://writers.internet-resources.com>
.

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