Obama a Third Culture Kid President!!
Hey TCKs,
Wow…I never thought this would happen. We have a biracial Third Culture Kid as the President of the U.S. But what does it mean for you, and how will you be affected by this change?
Today, Obama is the President of the United States. As a teenager, though, Obama was a young man with a confused identity. He experimented with marijuana and cocaine. He faced the same challenges I hear every day from TCKs in emails.
As Obama writes in his memoir, “Dreams from My Father,” he felt alienated, struggling to understand his biracial identity, fearful of fulfilling a stereotype. “Junkie. Pothead. That’s where I’d been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man,” he writes.
Personally, it means a lot to me, because I can actually relate to Obama. I’m sure many TCKs can too.
My father is a French/Vietnamese U.N Peacekeeper and my mom is Ethiopian. I was born in France, and grew up in Canada, Mayotte (an island most people have never heard of), La Reunion and England. As a teenager, like Obama, I’ve struggled to understand my multicultural identity and asked myself: “Where do I really belong?”
I shared these thoughts with our friend Ruth, and here’s what she had to say:
“Brice, I think it is HUGE for us all! I hope now this becomes one more part of “normalizing” our identity. thanks for what you do towards that same end… send him this story you just wrote us and let him know he should join our forum! - Ruth E. Van Reken”
It’s been said that: “America is Ready for Change”. But politics aside, I can’t help but wonder…
Will his multiracial identity promote a culture of inclusion? Will this change the meaning of belonging?
Will a young TCK be able to tell their friends after repatriation: “I’m half Kenyan, and I grew up in Indonesia.” … without feeling excluded?
And most importantly, how will you personally be affected by this change?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
PS: If Obama didn’t win, I told my friends I’ll change my name to “Baraice Robama”. I’m glad he won. 
Young Obama.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Nice article Dan. I can see why you’d want to let out the American part of you hehe - I love this part:
“She was a stranger, and she kissed me. Just for being an American.”
And…
“An American colleague in Egypt says several people came up to her on the streets of Cairo and said: “America, hooray!” Others, including strangers, expressed congratulations with a smile and a hand over their hearts.”
Overnight, Americans did something their harshest critics in Europe have yet to do: elect a person of color as head of state and commander in chief. That gives U.S. citizens some bragging rights, even if a lot of us would just as soon eschew hubris and embrace humility. ”
Go Obama!!
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November 7th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I’m currently studying abroad in the UK as an American student, and I stayed up through the night to get the official results.
This was the reaction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9rqh6TW19I
I should mention that this was in an on-campus bar with maybe 20 Americans and about 100-150 Europeans. Most of the people singing and cheering are, in fact, EU citizens. And most of them stayed to hear Obama’s acceptance speech–there were only five Americans left by then. Personally, I cried. I was so happy, and for the first time since I became politically conscious, I am proud to be an American.
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November 8th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
as you may know, I felt suffocated with the coverage that Brazilian media did for this election
but the truth is, when I woke up I really wanted to know if he had won
I had a big doubt “will the Americans actually do it? will they actually elect a black guy as their leader?”, because you might not know, but down here in South America the US is strongly stereotyped as a mirror image of George Bush (which makes me wonder if ppl overseas think Brazilians are the mirror of that dumb president we have :S )
so the US surprised me, in a good way
there seems to be a lot of excitement, though, that I’m not sure he will be able to live up to that. I hope he does. But at least in Brasil, political ties are strong, and he might get caught in the “do me a favour and I’ll do you a favour” kind of thing that all politicains end up doing. But maybe that’s just my Brasilian-disspaointed-with-politics point of view.
I guess there’s also a sense of “too good to be true” in me, that still can’t beleive this is happening. But I do hope it stays true for a very long time.
on the TCK side, I think it was aradana who said, it will be easier to explain to ppl who we are “oh, I’m like Obama, a bit from Brasil and a bit from the UK”.
other than that I also like what sb said, that it’s an example to other TCKs, that we can overcome our problems and occupy an important (if not, THE most important) position in the world.
but to end my comment, the best sentence I heard from TV5 (which I watched the day after he was elected), was “it’s the end of the Bush era”.
Which hopefully will bring some peace to the world, and will also “clean” the image that other countries have of the USA and of Americans in general.
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November 18th, 2008 at 12:22 am
Why I Can’t Stop Smiling
Lately, I keep catching myself smiling so big; sometimes tears leak out. For the past fourteen days. I just can’t stop. It hasn’t gotten old. Not for one moment. And maybe it never will. Every time it’s mentioned on the radio, Internet, television, “President-Elect Barack Obama…” I catch myself breathing a deep sigh of long awaited excitement and thanksgiving.
I’ve known since it happened that I needed to write something here. If you’ve read my blog over the past two years, you know I’ve been enthusiastic about Obama for a long time. But now that this is official, it is difficult to know just what to say.
I think part of the struggle for me is my awareness of the sharp divides each political season can create between friends and loved ones, let alone strangers. I know many people who are beyond delighted about Obama’s nomination. And I know many who are not. There are such different opinions when it comes to politics, and many are sharply contrasting. Here is where I would invite you, no matter which way you find the winds of your enthusiasm blowing, to consider one of the reasons why I can’t stop smiling.
Obama’s worldview is wired for complexity. If you look at his family, you will find members spread out over three continents, each with vastly different viewpoints on how the world works. If you examine his life experience, you will find significant years lived in numerous dissimilar portions of this global community, all impacting who and what he considers as he makes decisions, speaks, and acts. And while the multiplicity of influences themselves have been profoundly important in shaping who he is today, it is the deep and honorable personal work he has done to integrate these differences within himself that brings me a sense of hopeful confidence that he can legitimately offer his value for respecting difference to the rest of us in a time when coming together to do good work is so needed and so badly required.
Obama’s ability to hold together vast differences, to stay present in the tension of conflicts and diversity of thought, to build bridges between others who see and understand things in remarkably divergent ways makes him just the kind of leader we need right now. For if we take him up on his commitments to lead us in this way, there is potential that he can be a remarkable leader for all, even and especially when we find ourselves with strikingly different viewpoints. Obama said something like this himself in his speech on November 4th, and he’s been laying groundwork for it in other quieter ways too. I believe our voices matter to him because he knows that our voices matter to one another. Soon, we may actually be lead by an administration that takes the transparency of government and the democratic process to levels never before considered, and I am very curious about all that lies ahead.
But for now, I will continue to savor this chronic smile. It has certainly been a long time coming.
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