{"id":41910,"date":"2015-07-25T01:44:29","date_gmt":"2015-07-25T01:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=41910"},"modified":"2015-07-25T01:44:29","modified_gmt":"2015-07-25T01:44:29","slug":"layers-of-meaning-in-mr-obamas-kenya-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=41910","title":{"rendered":"Layers of Meaning in Mr. Obama\u2019s Kenya Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/07\/24\/opinion\/layers-of-meaning-in-mr-obamas-kenya-trip.html\" target=\"_blank\">Layers of Meaning in Mr. Obama\u2019s Kenya Trip<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\" target=\"_blank\">The New York Times<\/a><br \/>\n2015-07-23<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/opinion\/editorialboard.html\" target=\"_blank\">The Editorial Board<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/07\/24\/opinion\/layers-of-meaning-in-mr-obamas-kenya-trip.html\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2015\/07\/24\/opinion\/24fri3web\/24fri3web-superJumbo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<small>Nairobi, Kenya (Credit: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bpcurtis.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Ben Curtis<\/strong><\/a>\/<em>Associated Press<\/em>)<\/small><\/p>\n<p>There often comes a time in the lives of Americans when they feel drawn to explore their roots, a quest that might take them on a pilgrimage to the \u201cold country,\u201d whether <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/County_Limerick\" target=\"_blank\">County Limerick<\/a>, or <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Guangzhou\" target=\"_blank\">Guangzhou<\/a>, or a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/West_Africa\" target=\"_blank\">West African<\/a> country from which their ancestors were abducted as slaves.<\/p>\n<p>Roots are an integral part of one\u2019s identity, especially in a time of mass migrations. So it is no surprise that <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Barack_Obama\" target=\"_blank\">Barack Obama\u2019s<\/a> first visit to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kenya\" target=\"_blank\">Kenya <\/a>as president should be enormously poignant, complex and absorbing. This is no typical presidential visit \u2014 and this is no typical descendant of immigrants.<\/p>\n<p>The mix of narratives behind Mr. Obama\u2019s trip is extraordinary. It is the ultimate American dream: the step-grandson of an illiterate African rising to the most powerful office on earth. There is Mr. Obama\u2019s own story so movingly told in his first book, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=11610\" target=\"_blank\">Dreams From My Father<\/a>,\u201d about a youth raised by a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ann_Dunham\" target=\"_blank\">white mother<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hawaii\" target=\"_blank\">Hawaii<\/a> trying to build an identity out of his complex background, and the central role played in this search by the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Barack_Obama,_Sr.\" target=\"_blank\">Kenyan father<\/a> he meets only once&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/07\/24\/opinion\/layers-of-meaning-in-mr-obamas-kenya-trip.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Layers of Meaning in Mr. Obama\u2019s Kenya Trip The New York Times 2015-07-23 The Editorial Board Nairobi, Kenya (Credit: Ben Curtis\/Associated Press) There often comes a time in the lives of Americans when they feel drawn to explore their roots, a quest that might take them on a pilgrimage to the \u201cold country,\u201d whether County [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1295,12,63,8,26,20],"tags":[12821,2640,2327],"class_list":["post-41910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-articles","category-barack-obama","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-usa","tag-kenya","tag-new-york-times","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41912,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41910\/revisions\/41912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}