Yesterday, I read Obama's book, Dreams From My Father, originally published in 1995. As an aside, this is an absolute must-read if you are white and plan to vote for Obama, or even think you might vote for Obama. Indeed, it is your civic duty to read this book.

Obama, as many of you know, has been careful to abstain from many votes in the Senate, or just not be present, speaks in vague generalizations, and has not disclosed much information on his issue positions, who his running mate may be, who his cabinet officers may be, etc. This book at least gives some clue as to what he thinks, and it was written long before (I presume) he was thinking about being president, unlike the much more recent The Audacity of Hope, a title apparently taken from a sermon give by his radical black pastor, Jeremiah Wright (Dreams, page 292). I do have one caveat: the edition I read was re-copyrighted in 2004; has it been edited from its original 1995 copyright? I do not know.

Some recurrent themes from Dreams (any bracketed material in quotations are my additions):

A. Black people, underneath it all, really and truly despise us white people:

From Chicago:

"That hate hadn't gone away; it formed a counternarrative buried deep within each [black] person and at the center of which stood white people--some cruel, some ignorant, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives. I had to ask myself whether the bonds of the [black] community could be restored without collectively exorcising that ghostly figure that haunted black dreams. Could Ruby [a black woman in Chicago] love herself without hating blue eyes?" (Dreams, page 195).

And from his trip to Kenya:

Here in Africa, though, the [white] tourists didn't seem so funny. I felt them as an encroachment, somehow; I found their innocence vaguely insulting. It occurred to me that in their utter lack of self-consciousness, they were expressing a freedom that neither Auma [his half-sister] not I could ever experience, a bedrock confidence in their own parocihalism, a confidence reserved for those born into imperial cultures." (Dreams, page 312)

B. There is an unbridgeable gulf between the races:

";after Mary's husband left [Mary was a white woman married to a black man who had abandoned her, living in a black neighborhood on Chicago's south side and working with Obama's community organizing group], the neighbors had shown her and her [mulatto] children solicitude, helping them fix a leaky roof, inviting them to barecues and birthday parties, commending Mary on all her good works [for the black community]. Still, there were limits to how far the neighbors could accept the family, unspoken boundaries to the friendships that Mary could make with the [black] women--specifically the married ones--that she met. Her only real friends were her [two] daughters--and now Will, whose own fall and idiosyncratic faith gave them something private to share." (Dreams, page 176)

"If [black] nationalism could create a strong and effective insularity, deliver on the promise of self-respect, then the hurt it might cause well-meaning whites, or the inner turmoil it caused people like me, would be of little consequence." (Dreams, page 200)

C. To a man like Obama, getting the government involved IS the solution--he never mentions that the government only gets its money from us, the taxpayer, and his entire community organizing stint was focused on getting government programs to his community in Chicago (he didn't seem to meet with foundations or private funding sources):

"There were close to a hundred people in the room by the time Ms. Alvarez showed up--a large, imperious, Mexican-Ameican woman with two young white men in suits trailing behind her."

"I didn't even know this was out here," I heard one of the aides whisper to the other...."

"The leadership acquitted itself well that night. Angela laid otut he issue for the crowd and explained to Ms. Alvvarex what we expected from her. When Ms. Alvarez avoided giving a definite response, Mona jumped in and pushed for a yes-or-no answer. And when Ms. Alvarex finally promised to have a MET [Mayor's Office of Employment Training] intake center in the area within six months, the crowd broke into hearty applause." (Dreams, page 185)

D. We all should know that Thomas Jefferson prophesied in Notes on the State of Virginia that once black slavery ended, blacks and whites would not be able to live together in a peaceful society. Jefferson argued slavery created too much ill-will that could never be removed.

Questions for Debate:

1) Is there any possibility that the races can ever reconcile? Why or why not?

2) If not, what would be the best solution--separate nations, repatriation to Africa, repatriation to Europe?

3) If so, will the process destroy this society and the values that made it great?

4) Will prevalent intermarriage solve the problem by reducing, or at least changing, racial distinctions?

5) In light of what is revealed in Dreams, is it prudent for white voters to help bestow upon a man like Obama the reins to the most powerful position on earth?