Nothing in This World Is That Simple—Including People
- People are complicated—even Obama's white grandmother, a woman who loved him fiercely but "on more than one occasion […] uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made [him] cringe" (65).
- For better or worse, his grandmother (and all of our inappropriate grandmothers) are part of the American story, and Obama acknowledges those stereotypes are coming from a place defined by years of learned behavior.
- We can't disown those people for the way they think, but he says we can choose to do something to change it.
- But that's the thing—we have to consciously make the choice. "Race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now," but we can't be afraid of things getting complicated (72).
- Ignoring our problems just makes them bigger, and doing our best to pass them off on the next generation is not working.
- "If we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges" that really threaten our country—and details from Grandma's doctors appointments will be mild compared to a future bogged down by centuries-old racial tensions (75).