Much has been made of Barack Obama’s race. Mainly that he’s the “black candidate.” The last time I checked he is also half white. Hmmm. Not much on that. However, we have heard of Obama’s white grandmother from Barack himself.

Barack was born to a Kenyan (Black) father and an American (White) mother. His parents met while attending the University of Hawaii at Monoa. They separated when Barack was only two years old and later divorced. Following the divorce Obama’s father left to attend Harvard where he later earned a graduate degree in economics. He returned to Kenya and secured a high ranking position in the Kenyan government. He only saw Barack a handful of times. He was killed in a car accident in 1982.

Ann Dunham, Barack’s mother, was the parent who is credited with raising and most shaping Barack. Sadly, she passed away from ovarian cancer in 1995. So why is it that we hear so little of his mother? We certainly heard about Baracks so called “racist grandmother” supposedly afraid of blacks.

I believe Jesse Jackson was the true black candidate. Jackson competed unsuccessfully for the democratic nomination bid in 1984 & 1988. I remember seeing Jackson in Market Square in Pittsburgh, 1984. I can say he was charismatic from what I remember. I mostly remember the crowd and the fact that I was about to see someone kind of famous. Much was made of Jackson and the fact that he was the “black candidate.” But I digress…

Is the media that worried about talking about race? Or are they more focused on the fact that Obama is half black vs. half white. An interesting dichotomy. Martin Luther King Jr. once hoped for a day when people would be “judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.” I guess we’re still a long way off from that reality.

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