Separated at Birth

It's beginning to feel like it...and that each of us was born in a separated dimension. You know who I'm talking about.

I've been busy as a bee today—in a good way.

However I have to take time to share a few things.

LA Weekly will be featuring a profile of me on Thursday, the 21st. The subject? My mirror life with Obama and the effort to save the Kenyan school named in his honor.

Oh, yeah and the site is up! A lot more basic than I had envisioned but we’ll see what happens as I add features.

And here's the hot newsflash: my mother is white. Well, that’s what Jerome Corsi assumed when he used my father’s four-year old Obama op-ed as reference material for his best-seller The Obama Nation.

[Philip] Ochieng's point in writing this insightful piece was not just to set the record straight on Obama Senior. More important, he sought to describe how Obama Junior, when first visiting the "Home Squared" of his father's native village during his 1992 trip to Africa, was confronted with the perplexing accusation, "You're lost!"

The expression comes from the Luo verb lal, which Ochieng explained means to disappear or be away for a long time without an explanation. "Simply by being born and growing up in America, Barack Junior had never been a Luo: He had lal," Ochieng wrote.

From there, Ochieng argued Obama Senior "had lost his way by marrying a white woman -- Barack Junior's mother." Ochieng confessed that he shared this plight. For decades he was estranged from his daughter, who was born of a white woman who left him while Ochieng was in the United States studying.

My mom’s response: “Well, that certainly isn’t the first time someone has described me in that manner.” (I could hear her smirking over the phone.) Well heck, me neither. However, my father does mention my name in the op-ed and a quick bit of Google work would have revealed that I was probably not half white. It's an...interesting...assumption. But what can one expect from someone who uses Andy Martin as a source?

The part about my parents’ separating also leaves the impression that my father was in the US studying while my mother was in another country. Wrong. They separated—later divorced--while both lived in the US in the same abode.

Out there somewhere is a list of things which are allegedly wrong about Corsi’s book. I don’t know what any of the items on the list are but if it's an accurate list, then this item should be on it.

Seemingly unrelated: my step-father and I were agreeing the other day that there are no coincidences. You'll see what I'm talking about on Thursday.

UPDATE (January 31, 2009): After seeing the misconception about my family on the web several times in the last six months I finally got to contact Mr. Corsi about the mix up. He was very nice about it.

Comments

[Caltechgirl]

excellent! I'll be able to say I knew you when....

[Donna B.]

I just looked at the site and I think it's great -- straightforward and interesting with a way to donate. Content is what matters.

[IronMike]

Wow! You're white! What a surprise.

(A certain part of your anatomy must be from your dad's side though.)

[baldilocks]

Hey!

My hair? :-D

[doubleplusundead]

I think the fact you're putting information about Kenya and the Luo is a good thing, gives people a bit of information about a place and culture they probably don't see much of in media. I had someone thank me for covering Zimbabwe's hyperinflation (back when a loaf of bread was still only seven figures), they were glad to see it was being covered because African problems get ignored. The commenter said they did some work in Zimbabwe before Mugabe totally mangled it.

[notropis]

Congratulations on the site, and the publicity! Way to go. This could work out really well for some kids.

As for Corsi, sloppy fact-checking like that, in pursuit of a quick publication, will destroy the value of even the true things that might be in his book. Oh, well. People shouldn't need Corsi to see Obama for what he really is, anyway.

(Or maybe there's something your mother hasn't told you....)

[Beth]

Well, I guess you could say there's no such thing as "bad" PUBLICITY. ;)

You rock, Juliette. Congratulations on getting the attention your work deserves, and congratulations on the new site! What an awesome project! :)

[baldilocks]

notropis,

Well she is kinda sorta white--like Obama's kids--and yours IIRC. Somehow I don't think that's what Corsi was thinking of, however. And yes, the sloppiness dilutes any truth that may be located therein.

Thanks Beth and everyone else.

[Heather P.]

Well I guess you can look at the old saying from Hollywood, "As long as they spell your name right, there is no such thing as bad publicity."
Be sure to link to the post when it appears. So glad you got the site up. I will be forwarding it to my homeschooling friends this week.