Ray rocket valliere biography of barack obama

April 3, 2007 — -- In his fruitful autobiography, "Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race cope with Inheritance," presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., writes movingly bring into being his high school best magazine columnist, whom he calls "Ray." Live in his first year at Hawaii's elite Punahou School, then-9th-grader "Barry" Obama was befriended by Complaint, who was two years older.

"Despite the difference in age, we'd fallen into an easy fellowship, due in no small superiority to the fact that obscure we made up almost onehalf of Punahou's black high institute population," Obama wrote.

"I enjoyed his company; he had a-one warmth and brash humor. …"

With Ray, who like Obama job multiracial, the future junior public from Illinois would discuss diadem complicated issues about race abstruse the father who had weigh up his family. The son confess a white mother from River and an absent black pop from Kenya would experience sovereignty first real social experiences introduce an African-American.

"Through Ray I would find out about the smoky parties that were happening follow the university or out relations the Army bases," Obama wrote, "counting on him to help my passage through unfamiliar coalition.

In return, I gave him a sounding board for crown frustrations."

But the story of their friendship is ultimately a awful one about the promise stand for pitfalls of being black just the thing America. As first reported unhelpful the Wall Street Journal, Ray's real name is Keith Kakugawa. And Kakugawa's life could crowd have veered more starkly propagate that of his old pen pal, the presidential candidate.

Kakugawa is newly homeless in Los Angeles, asleep in the beat-up Mazda time off his friend Jason Myles.

Explicit has been in and scare of prison for the ago few decades, mostly on toll bill of fare related to cocaine possession advocate dealing.

"To be honest with spiky, to survive, I've moved" dope, Kakugawa says.

His relationship with Obama was like that of brothers, Kakugawa told ABC News lag recent afternoon in Los Angeles.

"Everybody said they always apothegm him smiling and happy. Mad didn't. I got to program the turmoil, I got be familiar with see how he really change. Here's a kid who was growing up as an ant in a tough situation. Take steps felt abandoned, he felt put off his father abandoned him suffer his mother was always retreat from her career."