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Video: It's Official; Gloria Borland Confirms Barack Obama Made In Hawaii; Angry Black Man?
Birther Report
5/1/2013
Excerpt:
Obama’s link to Hawaii not ignored by islanders
Excerpts Via Emily Wax @ Washington Post
Closing Video Excerpts from Barack Obama: Made in Hawaii:
It’s a bright Sunday morning and Gloria Borland is rushing her 10-year-old to hula class at Halau O ’Aulani, a Hawaiian cultural school in Arlington. Musicians in Tiki shirts and Tevas set up their steel guitars, and students with plastic frangipani flowers in their hair pull on yellow cotton skirts. Borland’s daughter skips over to join a circle of dancers as her mother collapses into a chair, her arms filled with notes on President Obama’s formative years in Hawaii and several biographies stuffed with crinkled Post-it notes that read, “WRONG — IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED IN HAWAII.”
When it comes to Obama, Borland wants the world to understand one thing: The president is a native son of Hawaii. She spent the past six years making “Barack Obama: Made in Hawaii,” a two-hour documentary that she hopes will set the record straight as Obama’s legacy begins to take shape.
“President Obama is not an angry black man from Chicago. I mean, give me a break, he’s a Hawaiian, with a Hawaiian temperament,” says Borland, who was raised in Hawaii around the same time as Obama and now lives in Dupont Circle. Along with Washington’s 10,000-strong Hawaiian community, she believes the 44th president’s public narrative fails to highlight just how deeply Hawaiian culture has influenced both his personality and his policies. [...]
The president’s competing biographical narratives are apparent in the wrangling over which state will get to host Obama’s official presidential library when his second term ends. Will it be the sun-dappled Polynesian island where he was born and raised, graduating from Honolulu’s prestigious Punahou School? Or the chilly metropolis on Lake Michigan where he worked as a young community organizer and later served as a senator?
For Borland, what does it feel like to be obsessed — possessed — with the belief that an important part of history is being ignored? For the Hawaiian community in Washington it’s a little like this: “Did you know, that Obama’s daughter is named ‘Malia’? Malia is a common Hawaiian name,” says Borland, her voice rising. “Go to any school in Hawaii, any classroom, and you’ll find a girl named Malia.”
Borland’s own pre-teen daughter, Imiloa, has been her secret weapon in getting exclusive interviews with Obama’s childhood friends. She recites facts even quicker than her mother. “Did you know most kids’ books on Obama leave out his Hawaiian story?” she asks as her mother exhibits Obama’s page in a book called “U.S. Presidents” that makes no mention of Hawaii. Borland finds such omissions “flabbergasting,” and points out that they are not confined to children’s books. The Obama biography video shown at the Democratic National Convention in 2008, for example, doesn’t even mention Hawaii. [...]
The “birther” controversy added to the confusion about Obama, said Robert Perkinson, a professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaii. “At the same time, a lot of people put Obama in a box as the first black president, which he is,” said Perkinson, who is heading efforts to bring Obama’s library to the island. “But in truth he’s also the country’s most cosmopolitan — that global part of his story doesn’t get distilled into sound bites.” [...] - Continued at Washington Post. Hat tip RF.
View the complete Birther Report presentation at:
http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogs...a-borland.html
Birther Report
5/1/2013
Excerpt:
Obama’s link to Hawaii not ignored by islanders
Excerpts Via Emily Wax @ Washington Post
Closing Video Excerpts from Barack Obama: Made in Hawaii:
It’s a bright Sunday morning and Gloria Borland is rushing her 10-year-old to hula class at Halau O ’Aulani, a Hawaiian cultural school in Arlington. Musicians in Tiki shirts and Tevas set up their steel guitars, and students with plastic frangipani flowers in their hair pull on yellow cotton skirts. Borland’s daughter skips over to join a circle of dancers as her mother collapses into a chair, her arms filled with notes on President Obama’s formative years in Hawaii and several biographies stuffed with crinkled Post-it notes that read, “WRONG — IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED IN HAWAII.”
When it comes to Obama, Borland wants the world to understand one thing: The president is a native son of Hawaii. She spent the past six years making “Barack Obama: Made in Hawaii,” a two-hour documentary that she hopes will set the record straight as Obama’s legacy begins to take shape.
“President Obama is not an angry black man from Chicago. I mean, give me a break, he’s a Hawaiian, with a Hawaiian temperament,” says Borland, who was raised in Hawaii around the same time as Obama and now lives in Dupont Circle. Along with Washington’s 10,000-strong Hawaiian community, she believes the 44th president’s public narrative fails to highlight just how deeply Hawaiian culture has influenced both his personality and his policies. [...]
The president’s competing biographical narratives are apparent in the wrangling over which state will get to host Obama’s official presidential library when his second term ends. Will it be the sun-dappled Polynesian island where he was born and raised, graduating from Honolulu’s prestigious Punahou School? Or the chilly metropolis on Lake Michigan where he worked as a young community organizer and later served as a senator?
For Borland, what does it feel like to be obsessed — possessed — with the belief that an important part of history is being ignored? For the Hawaiian community in Washington it’s a little like this: “Did you know, that Obama’s daughter is named ‘Malia’? Malia is a common Hawaiian name,” says Borland, her voice rising. “Go to any school in Hawaii, any classroom, and you’ll find a girl named Malia.”
Borland’s own pre-teen daughter, Imiloa, has been her secret weapon in getting exclusive interviews with Obama’s childhood friends. She recites facts even quicker than her mother. “Did you know most kids’ books on Obama leave out his Hawaiian story?” she asks as her mother exhibits Obama’s page in a book called “U.S. Presidents” that makes no mention of Hawaii. Borland finds such omissions “flabbergasting,” and points out that they are not confined to children’s books. The Obama biography video shown at the Democratic National Convention in 2008, for example, doesn’t even mention Hawaii. [...]
The “birther” controversy added to the confusion about Obama, said Robert Perkinson, a professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaii. “At the same time, a lot of people put Obama in a box as the first black president, which he is,” said Perkinson, who is heading efforts to bring Obama’s library to the island. “But in truth he’s also the country’s most cosmopolitan — that global part of his story doesn’t get distilled into sound bites.” [...] - Continued at Washington Post. Hat tip RF.
View the complete Birther Report presentation at:
http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogs...a-borland.html