"Both Gates and Obama identify much more closely with their "White" heritage"
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maybe so, but he has also made the following statements in his Ghana speech:

Obama spoke of having the "blood of Africa" in his vein ( has he ever said he has the blood of urope in his veins?)

My father grew up herding goats in a tiny village, an impossible distance away from the American universities where he would come to get an education. He came of age at an extraordinary moment of promise for Africa.

regarding his grandfather:

And though he was a respected elder in his village, his employers called him "boy" for much of his life. He was on the periphery of Kenya's liberation struggles, but he was still imprisoned briefly during repressive times. In his life, colonialism wasn't simply the creation of unnatural borders or unfair terms of trade - it was something experienced personally, day after day, year after year,
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Now, I am sure that I will receive the normal responses - Obama worshipper, etc etc. But the truth is, anyone who remains in the United States of their own free will is just as American as apple pie, baseball, white picket fences and of course - just as "Amercanized" as Obama.

If you are a Karibkween - in America, then it could also be 'assumed' that you 'identify' more to your American 'roots' than you Karibean roots. Now I dont know if you are in the states or not - but that could be a rational assumption if you are in fact in America - just as rational as your assumption regarding Obama and what he identifies with