Obama’s mental note of the “ledge of slights” he experiences daily
In this scene Obama talks about a ledger of slights or in other words a book of insults. He gives a list of insults he faced. A kid in the 7th grade called him a coon, a tennis pro told Obama to not touch a paper because his color will rub off the paper, and when he was in his grandparents apartment building an old woman went to the manager of the building and said that Obama was fouling her. He goes on to mention a coach who was from New York. The Obama team was playing a pick up game with black kids who were trash talkers. Obama’s team lost and the coach got mad. The coach started to say racist things to the other kids, calling them the n-word.
A significant quote from this scene was, “Can’t you take a joke?” This is very significant because the tennis pro thought that him being racist to Obama was funny and a good joke. If the kids saw this as a joke what stops the other kids from thinking being racist is funny or a joke. Even if being racist could be a joke it doesn’t mean that it’s right and is acceptable. It hurt Obama and he probably didn’t see these insults as a joke.
In this scene Obama learned that the world he lives in right now is racist. They made many insults to him and they viewed those insults as a joke. He learned that the white folks didn’t know when they were being cruel.
Excellent work Michael!