Sunlen Miller of ABC News reports that Barack Obama informed Iowa voters yesterday that his grandmother lives in a "tiny hut":"It's that experience, that understanding, not just of what world leaders I went and talked to in the ambassadors house I had tea with, but understanding the lives of the people like my grandmother who lives in a tiny hut in Africa," [emphasis added]
Bob McCarthy raises an interesting point: Obama's statement prompted me to wonder why "Grandma Obama" is still living in a tiny hut years after her nouveaux-riche grandson had attained the means via which he could have greatly improved her living situation.
One has to wonder about the thought processes of a man who has made a very healthy family income, well into six figures, for a number of years, and who now has a best-selling book bringing in major cash as well. How could he leave Granny in such an abject state of existence?
Perhaps he is of the cultural sensitivity school: moving Grandma into a house with all the modern conveniences might isolate her from her neighbors, sparking resentment. If so, does he extend this logic to the welfare state back home? Should we let minorities express themselves culturally and give up attempts to raise them out of their existing conditions?
Or perhaps he feels little real connection to Grandma. After all, she is the mother of his father, who abandoned him to be raised by his white mother and her parents. But if so, then why does he identify himself a black rather than trans-racial. Trans-racial people are after all a fast-growing minority in America, often scorned by others, with no spokesman to sensitize us to the stresses of being a member of this category of citizen.
Or maybe it is something else entirely? I cannot claim to know Obama's mind or heart. But I am very, very interested in how he thinks about his poor grandma living in housing that would not be acceptable in America. I hope he is questioned on the subject.
Mrs. Clinton might be interested in pursuinbg this.
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