All Things To All Men...How Obama Became Black

Really...Who is this guy?

By David Maraniss, Published: June 14 The Washington Post

He was too dark in Indonesia. A “hapa” child — half and half — in Hawaii. Multicultural in Los Angeles. An “invisible man” in New York. And finally, Barack Obama was black on the South Side of Chicago. This journey of racial self-discovery and reinvention is chronicled in David Maraniss’s biography, “Barack Obama: The Story,”to be published Tuesday. These excerpts trace the young Obama’s arc toward black identity, through his words and experiences, and through the eyes of those who knew him well.

“How come his mother’s skin is bright while her son’s is way darker?”

    

Barack Obama’s mother did not live to see her son’s rise, but she shaped the essence of this president.

Everything about Barry seemed different to his classmates and first-grade teacher, Israela Pareira, at S.D. Katolik Santo Fransiskus in Jakarta, Indonesia. He came in wearing shoes and socks, with long pants, a black belt and a white shirt neatly tucked in. The other boys wore short pants above the knee, and they often left their flip-flops or sandals outside the classroom and studied in bare feet. Barry was the only one who could not speak Bahasa Indonesia that first year. Ms. Pareira was the only one who understood his English...some boys communicated with him in a sign language they jokingly called
“Bahasa tarzan.”

Appearances are deceiving. Lil' Barry has been, and always will be what the situation demands him to be...nothing more...nothing less. The real answer to the question, "Who is this guy?" is this...

HE IS A NOBODY!

He is a facade, a placard, a poster, a misanthrope, a Golem.

In Jewish tradition, the golem is most widely known as an artificial creature created by magic, often to serve its creator. The word "golem" appears only once in the Bible (Psalms139:16). In Hebrew, "golem" stands for "shapeless mass."

The Talmud uses the word as "unformed" or "imperfect" and according to Talmudic legend, Adam is called "golem," meaning "body without a soul" (Sanhedrin 38b) for the first 12 hours of his existence. The golem appears in other places in the Talmud as well. One legend says the prophet Jeremiah made a golem However, some mystics believe the creation of a golem has symbolic meaning only, like a spiritual experience following a religious rite.

Video courtesy of Mark Scott