3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Obama's Choice?, November 30, 2010
This book easily should have been a "five star" entry. Its goal of providing a psychological profile of Obama writ large was an admirable one, which, with but one glaring exception, was executed flawlessly. Even with the glaring omission (that I will point out subsequently), the book is thoughtfully researched, cleanly executed, and very well-written indeed. Moreover, unlike others of this genre, it is not just a rehash of Obama's own two earlier books. It does indeed dig beneath the surface of the enigma that is Barack Hussein Obama, and on more than one occasion challenges some of Obama's own contentions offered up in "Dreams from My Father." My only disappointment is that the book missed an important basis for understanding Obama's young life by hewing too closely to the culturally sanctioned and approved rules of analyzing the issues of race and sex.
That is the good news. The bad news is that by attempting to finesse the only two issues that really mattered in the subtext of the life of a confused young biracial man trying to find his way in a racist culture: the issues of race and sex, Ms. Abramsky has done immeasurable harm to an otherwise stellar production. It is safe to say that, in addition to religion, race and sex are the only issues that are really pivotal to defining a young man's identity. And if the truth were told, religion, stripped down to to its bare essence, is really also only about race and sex. I tried to find ways to excuse the author for this glaring omission. But each time I was prepared to do so, she herself brought forth new evidence of her own guilty self-awareness of these issues.
The first such instance was her very perceptive comment that Obama's writings have been especially cool to the point of being almost indifferent towards his white mother. This incidentally is a fact that most of us also did not miss.(See for instance my Amazon review of Obama's first book: "Dreams from my father."). Even though Obama does eventually and begrudgingly give his mom at least minimal although backhanded (if only obligatory) credit for playing the dominant role in shaping his early life, the coolness with which he did so (itself and on its own terms) begs for, and requires serious psychological analysis. It is not the kind of thing that a serious analysis (as this book claims to be and set out as its main goal) can casually overlook or dismiss. Yet, this author did so.
The other instance is the age at which Obama was hauled back to the mainland from Indonesia and the subsequent frequent attempts after returning by his white grandfather to impose a connection on him with a local black man. The third one is when the author draws the erroneous conclusion that since Hawaii is a polyglot, this somehow by definition implies that it is either racially tolerant or is completely free of racism? In fact neither is true. Did the author not read Obama's first book carefully enough and understand why the white, Japanese or Native Hawaiian girls would not date him when he was in school there? And has she not been to the Island herself to see first hand (as I have) that the racist tension there is more than just palpable? If one is black there, Hawaii feels more like Alabama, Chicago or Boston, than Paris, Stockholm, or even London.
Surely Barry (since he was living it on several different levels and on at least two continents, and was a precocuously perceptive kid) was already a few steps ahead of "Team Dunham," and thus completely "over" understood what these jointly decided family machinations were really all about: His mom, in a quiet existential conspiracy with her parents, was trying to "run interference for" Barry (as best she knew how under the circumstances) so as to make the complex road ahead -- of adjusting to the twin whammy of cultural racism and its accompanying race-based sexual restrictions (mostly serverly targeted at young black men) that American society was poised to impose on him -- a bit more tolerable.
This was the Gordian knot that Obama's identity was to have unravelled. So Obama's problem was not (as the author assumed and Obama himself claimed) one of trying to find a "workable identity" for himself. The "one drop rule" had already prejudged the issue and predetermined Obama's (and all biracial people like him) identities: He and they all were by definition culturally defined as African Americans. End of choice; end of story, period. The author knew this just as we all know it? But in her analysis she glided pass these most important (and pregnant) of facts and pretended not to know them? For analysis of a "run-of-the-mill" American, this kind of glibness may be okay, but for a just elected 44th President of the U.S., C'mon now? How intellectually sloppy can one get?
The "catch" however is that what "Team Dunham" was really preparing Obama for was the shock of the impact of the racist "one-drop rule," which, in an unholy cultural fait accompli above his head, Obama's identity had already been decided for him, and for the rest of his life. Because of America's racist culture, Obama's white genes would no longer have any role to play in the matter of deciding the fate of his identity. American society had cast him down into the same racial sewer of purgatory that everyone else in American society lives in, and thus had forever robbed him of the right to define himself based on his righteous heritage of being bi-racial, or as Dr. Martin Luther King put it: based solely on the content of his character." And I might add, based on his clear superior intellect.
Put even more simply, since "bi-racial" in the U.S. by definition of the barbaric and profoundly racist "one-drop-rule," means black, Obama's identity fate was sealed before he had a chance to decide it on his own terms. The rest was "identity window-dressing." Obama thus, had on choice in the matter but to try and make a virtue out of a cultural necessity: Obama joined the black community because in the U.S. he had no other option (It was in fact his first, last and only option: Who are we kidding here?)
And thus the actions of the white side of his family -- especially as Obama perceived those of his mom, whom he had learned to trust instictively -- must have felt like a colossal betrayal -- one that he obviously had not gotten over by the time of his mom's death. It is significant that he did not attend his mom's funereal even though he did attend those of his white grandparents.
Thus, as quiet as this book has kept it (by ignoring it altogether), the truth is that Barry did not have a choice in the question of his identity. In the background of America's racist society, the die had already been cast for him. And his white mother and grandparents knew this all along. However, by passively accepting this cultural fait accompli, they either lacked the courage or the language to explain this to our 44th President directly and honestly. Their betrayal was to tell Obama this through insinuation rather than directly. In short, the most they could do was to gently feed him to the wolves of America's barbaric and cruel racist rules, allowing him to sink or swim on his own. So far, Obama has not negotiated this terrain too honestly or too well.
In short, Obama was "turned out" by his mom, and he never forgave her for it. This much is clear and this is a perfectly understandable Freudian conclusion to draw from Obama's background; one that completely explains the coolness towards Dr. Stanley Ann Dunham, his mom. This author pretended she did not know all this? Shame on her. Four Stars
.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A little too much on the positive, January 30, 2010
This review is from: Inside Obama's Brain (Hardcover)
Inside Obama's Brain is a decent, if sympathetic, overview of the political/social career of the 44th president. I would have liked to have read a few more interviews with his political opponents. But, overall, the book does show some negative aspects of Obama's personality and career. Obama looks like a opportunist in more than a few instances; Abramsky discusses his cynical embrace of the Daley machine, the vote for a symbolic border fence he didn't really support, and his abandonment of campaign finance reform during the 2008 election. I classify the book in the category of not quite good enough to buy, but worth checking out at the library.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
