A Story of Race and Inheritance

"I was living out a caricature of black male adolesence, itself a caricature of swaggering American manhood. Yet at a time when boys aren't supposed to want to follow their fathers' tired footsteps, when the imperatives of harvest or work in the factory aren't supposed to dictate identity, so that how to live is bought off the rack or found in magazines, the principal difference between me and most of the man-boys around me-- the surfers, the fooball players, the would-be rock-and-roll guitarists-- resided in the limited number of options at my disposal. Each of us chooses a costume, armor against uncertainty..."

It is both a beautiful and frightening thing to see inside the heart and mind of the man who is leading your home country. But I must say, I like what I see. I like that I can see some of my own disillusionment mirrored in this young version of my President. I like that at one time, Barack Obama also sought to "laugh at the world's ongoing folly and see through all the hypocrisy and bullshit and cheap moralism". I like it. And I love the book. And I think everyone should read it.