There was a really strange article by Nick Kristof in the NY Times about Sarah Obama, who Kristof calls “Mama Sarah”. She’s not his biological grandmother, she’s the stepmother of Barack’s father. Barack and his abuela don’t speak the same language, apparently, which according to Kristof seems to be some sort of insurmountable obstacle to them being close. Also, she apparently charges money to give interviews, at least according to Kristof, and even though she lives without electricity and running water she has a blackberry she charges with a solar panel…There’s nothing to see here, really. Tons of Americans who are immigrants or are from immigrant families have distant relatives that live in very squalid circumstances in the third world, and cell phones are pretty popular in areas where land lines are unavailable…apparently Kristof thinks this is some sort of oddity…No matter how you feel about Obama, you have to wonder at the press’ inability to handle people who have mixed ethnic backgrounds and whose families are scattered in various countries around the world, and whose socioeconomic circumstances might run the gamut from Harvard educated lawyers, to Indonesian oil executives, to illiterate rural dwellers in East Africa. Whatever doesn’t fit the standard White (American) v. Black (American) dichotomy and its attendant narratives doesn’t seem to register very well…

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/opinion/24kristof.html

@aydiosmio: Word!