Kobe Hall 

In Obama’s Dreams from my father, Obama’s family wants to live in a world where they wouldn’t be judged for associating with people of color. Whenever the family moved, they were judged for their inclusive approach to colored people. Obama’s grandparents were kind to all, his grandmother recalls being friends with a janitor at her workplace she respectfully called “MIster” and how her other coworker told her to never call a colored person Mister. When Obama’s mother was harassed for reading with a black girl and was called names and had rocks thrown at her. The school principal told her parents not to let her daughter hang out with blacks. Obama’s grandparents were against this reality and they shielded themselves by remaining reclusive and away from the social norms. The reality they wanted to live in is that all people should be respected and be treated equal as they should be. But the reality is that attitudes around them did not agree with their reality. Obama played to their reality because he showed that the two races could come together, despite what was going on around them. But he also contributed to the divide, because others would judge and stare at them as others. They would be disrespected and looked down upon even though it should be perfectly okay like they envisioned.  

“And Gramps, suddenly thoughtful, would start nodding to himself “It’s a fact, Bar,” he would say. “Your dad could handle just about any situation, and that made everybody like him. Remember the time he had to sing at the International Music Festival? He’d agreed to sing some African songs, but when he arrived it turned out to be this big to-do, and the woman who performed just before him was a semi-professional singer, a Hawaiian gal with a full band to back her up. Anyone else would have stopped right there, you know, and explained that there had been a mistake. But not Barack. He got up and started singing in front of this big crowd-which is no easy feat, let me tell you-and he wasn’t great, but he was so sure of himself that before you knew it he was getting as much applause as anybody.” My grandfather would shake his head and get out of his chair to flip on the TV set. “Now there’s something you can learn from your dad,” he would tell me. “Confidence. The secret to a man’s success.”  

The above passage stuck out to me because of the way that Obama’s grandfather respected his father and how he was always teaching young Barry something. He taught Barry early to have confidence in himself and I’m sure this is a lesson he never forgot. And when we look at the man Barack Obama is today, it’s clear that the stories from his grandfather were essential in his life.