Minorities At Risk For Drowning
Obama Honors Fallen Troops
Reporter Janny Scott spent two years compiling information for a book on President Barack Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham (pictured above with her first husband, Barack Obama Sr.).
The book, "A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother," was adapted into a six-page article in the New York Times, which is a delightfully inquisitive journey of the woman who was, as President Obama would later write, "the single constant in [his] life."
Scott merges those who knew Dunham with unexpected quotes and dialogue, illustrating a complex woman of courage who had a high-moral compass: Intentionally or not, the label [of being known as just a white woman from Kansas] obscures an extraordinary story - of a girl with a boy's name who grew up in the years before the women's movement, the pill and the antiwar movement; who married an African at a time when nearly two dozen states still had laws against interracial marriage; who, at 24, moved to Jakarta with her son in the waning days of an anticommunist bloodbath in which hundreds of thousands of Indonesians were slaughtered; who lived more than half her adult life in a place barely known to most Americans, in the country with the largest Muslim population in the world; who spent years working in villages where a lone Western woman was a rarity; who immersed herself in the study of blacksmithing, a craft long practiced exclusively by men; who, as a working and mostly single mother, brought up two biracial children; who believed her son in particular had the potential to be great; who raised him to be, as he has put it jokingly, a combination of Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi and Harry Belafonte; and then died at 52, never knowing who or what he would become.
Another highlight presents Dunham as a stoic and steely matriarch when her son is attacked with racist jeers in Indonesia:
After lunch, the group [including Dunham, Barry and friend Elizabeth Bryant] took a walk, with Barry running ahead. A flock of Indonesian children began lobbing rocks in his direction. They ducked behind a wall and shouted racial epithets. He seemed unfazed, dancing around as though playing dodge ball "with unseen players," Bryant said. Ann did not react. Assuming she must not have understood the words, Bryant offered to intervene. "No, he's O.K.," Ann said. "He's used to it."
"We were floored that she'd bring a half-black child to Indonesia, knowing the disrespect they have for blacks," Bryant said. At the same time, she admired Ann for teaching her boy to be fearless.
Dunham always had the highest expectations for her son. She even spoke about Obama being president of the United States as a child:
It was clear to many that Ann believed Barry, in particular, was unusually gifted. She would boast about his brains, his achievements, how brave he was. Benji Bennington, a friend of Ann's from Hawaii, told me, "Sometimes when she talked about Barack, she'd say, 'Well, my son is so bright, he can do anything he ever wants in the world, even be president of the United States.' I remember her saying that." Samardal Manan, who taught with Ann in Jakarta, remembered Ann saying something similar - that Barry could be, or perhaps wanted to be, the first black president.
"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Lolo asked Barry one evening, according to Saman.
"Oh, prime minister," Barry answered.
Even if you are not an Obama fan, this book sheds light on a woman who dared to live as she saw fit. Apparently, Dunham was able develop and rear the first black president of the United States while creating an existence that she could be proud of.
Also check out her timeline.
Comments: (54)
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By: Bruce on 4/20/2011 12:52PM
This looks like it is coming out just in time to shed light on Obama's background. Hopefully it will dispell some of the mythes.
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By: akmed on 4/20/2011 7:42PM
like the myth of his birth certificate?
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By: Buttons on 4/20/2011 1:27PM
Although two parent homes are best. I think Pres. Obama's mother is an excellent example that great things can come from a single parent household, particularly a single mother. I know children that come from two parent homes that are totally misguided. I think today we realize that having two parents in the home doesn't necessarily equate to having a quality upbringing. Clearly, his mother took the time to invest in her son and to provide him with the best life she could even though she raised him alone. "The Daddy wasn't home" excuse is no longer a reason not to succeed.
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By: nona on 4/20/2011 3:14PM
amen
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By: R.W. on 4/20/2011 10:33PM
Amen twice!!!
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By: bob on 4/21/2011 8:55AM
Yea she brought up a gem. A narsist,liar,cheat who hates america. Oh by the way the grandparents brought him up most of his life.
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By: AllBahianGirl on 4/21/2011 12:30PM
In a lot of two parent homes the parents hate each other and stay in a bitter sham of a marriage for the sake of the children. I was raised by a single mother who preferred divorce over being with a man she hated. A two parent home may be the ideal granted there is love,peace and harmony in the marriage. I found out that children who were raised in two parent homes where there was a lot of strife,hatred and dissension end up worst off than children raised in a positive,loving single parent home like I was. The Bible even talks about living in the home with a nagging shrew not good for the husband not good for the kids.
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By: Blake on 4/20/2011 1:35PM
I'm waiting to hear all the anti-white rhetoric that pervades this site on a daily basis....
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By: BCSurvivor on 4/20/2011 7:18PM
Blake, I reported Bugs Hunter's comment when s/he referred to you as a "racist cracker." Name calling needs to be squashed. It is inappropriate in this day and age of political correctness.
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By: DueGee on 4/20/2011 8:23PM
If you are looking for negativity you will find it. But excuse me is this not a Black man on the front of this article with his wife President Obama's mother who is yes white but African Americans have no inbred hatred of whites.
Untold numbers of African Americans have whites blood in their veins not because of choice but because of the slave masters taking all of the black females slaves sexually they wanted.
This occurred in this country long after slavery also.
President Obama does not stand alone in this country with one white and one black parent, so Blake you are way off key.
You were just defending the picture of some chimps being used to depict president Obama, his mother and father now you throw this comment in here out of left field.
Have you nothing better to do then to try and stir up animosity when there is none.
The short and long of it is that you are one sick puppy and I mean that in a the most negative way you can imagine. What ever negative opinion you may derive from these words will suffice.
DueGee
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