Here's an excerpt from a recent LA TIMES article on Obama:
He wrote in his memoir that his adolescence provoked "a fitful interior struggle . . . trying to raise myself to be a black man in America."
On an island where there were few blacks, he watched "I Spy" on television, tried to sing like Marvin Gaye and cursed like Richard Pryor. He stayed out late at night, shooting hoops, and started to drink and smoke weed, just to "push questions of who I was out of my mind."
For the complete article, go here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-obama28-2008aug28,0,5682074.story