Obama: The Man and the Message Bend the Rules of Ethnicity and Geography

WASHINGTON — The president’s elderly stepgrandmother brought him an oxtail fly whisk, a mark of power at home in Kenya. Cousins journeyed from the South Carolina town where the first lady’s great-great-grandfather was born into slavery, while the rabbi in the family came from the synagogue where he had been commemorating Martin Luther King’s Birthday. The president and first lady’s siblings were there, too, of course: his Indonesian-American half-sister, who brought her Chinese-Canadian husband, and her brother, a black man with a white wife.

When President Barack Obama was sworn in on Tuesday, he was surrounded by an extended clan that would have shocked past generations of Americans and instantly redrew the image of a first family for future ones. – NY Times: A Portrait of Change

There’s a great read in today’s New York Times regarding our new First Family.

Perhaps you noticed during the Inaugural coverage that a number of people were crying.

White, black, brown, yellow, red, young, old, men, women, Americans, Kenyans, and Indonesians…

They were watching in the United States, Africa, Indonesia, and the world.

They came in all shapes and sizes.

There were surfer dudes in Hawaii, tribal villagers in Africa, young students in Indonesia, young professionals in Chicago, celebrities in L.A., homeless in America’s cities, wounded in America’s veterans’ hospitals, and descendants of slaves.

Immigrants from Third World countries, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of immigrants from Europe, and citizens of other countries and continents.

And the snapshot of those who watched, those who were entranced, and those who were moved, reflected all of us – the global village of man.

And the families of Barack and Michelle Obama are a new snapshot in time, for they too, come in various colors, shapes, and packages.

They are a diverse family in living “technicolor” and you might want to know where they came from…

*Source: Doug Mills/The New York Times

Related:

In First Family, A Nation’s Many Faces/NY Times

JOHN PRESCOTT

–BostonKayakGuy

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JOHN PRESCOTT

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