Where is obamas grandparents from

Race is a subject the president has dealt with all his life, and never more urgently than when he broke with his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in over Wright's divisive racial views. In a critical speech while running for president in March , Mr.

Obama declared, "I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. The issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through. And now we're discovering something more! Maraniss, who traveled to Kenya and Indonesia in search of the influences that shaped Barack Obama, says the president's diverse roots make him hard to categorize. In such surroundings, my racial stock caused my grandparents few problems, and they quickly adopted the scornful attitude local residents took toward visitors who expressed such hangups.

That particular story is ambiguous, I think; I see in it a strategy to avoid hard issues. Skip to content Search for:. When still a presidential candidate in , Obama made a point to visit Butler Community College in El Dorado, reminding the audience about how his roots were as much Kansan as Kenyan. Out of this connection came this project, an attempt to look into this world of small town Kansas.

The goal was to interview those who had memories of Stanley and Madelyn, either as relatives or as friends. What emerged was a picture of life in two Kansas communities in the s, communities shaped by the oil industry, and the challenges of making a living during the Great Depression. In the process, the team looked into the stories of the Dunham and Payne families. What emerged was a rich set of insights into a set of families who were both remarkable and ordinary.

There were farmers who rented their farms rather than owned them. She had even tested negative for the virus and had passed from "normal diseases.

They grew a bond even with a language barrier between them. Distractify is a registered trademark. All Rights Reserved. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.