Having
absolved and
all but endorsed Senator Clinton for President, the L.A. Times
continues to peck away at Senator Obama's integrity.
Obama classmates saw a smile, but no racial turmoil
His Hawaii peers had no idea of the inner conflict his memoir describes. They recall a happy kid who fit in.
By Richard A. Serrano, Times Staff Writer
March 11, 2007
...Obama says that as he found his way in the world, he learned there were limits to the desirability of advertising his race.
"People
were satisfied so long as you were courteous and smiled and made no
sudden moves," he writes in "Dreams." "They were more than satisfied;
they were relieved -- such a pleasant surprise to find a well-mannered
young black man who didn't seem angry all the time."
Certainly Obama's classmates had little sense of what he says was going on beneath the surface.
"His
reflections about the race issue surprised all of us," said Kellie
Furushima, who knew him well. "He gave no indication of feeling
uncomfortable in school, and I never witnessed or heard anyone being
unkind to him.
"We liked him very much. I'd poke him in the
stomach when he walked by. We'd share a grin and giggle. He seemed to
me to be a happy guy."
Eric Kusunoki was Obama's homeroom teacher all four years of high
school. He saw him every morning, walked with him to school assemblies,
attended chapel services with him.
"To say there was a lot of
drugs going on back then is a fair statement, maybe an understatement,"
the teacher said. "But we didn't know who was involved or anything, and
he was a guy who was very poised and bright, polite and well-liked.
"And this search for his identity? I was totally unaware of any of that in him. That was all new to me."
Serrano's article is a decently researched rumination on the Hawaii of Obama's youth. The Times editors, however, crafted bold headlines that imply Obama's memoirs are insincere and hyperbolic. The effect is to lead the reader into the article with the impression that Obama's really full of it. And it's intentional and it's what we've come to expect from the Times.
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