Dreams Uncompressed

Chapter Four
The following are the facts from the years 1975-1977 as I recall them.

Keith Kakugawa (Ray) was two classes ahead of Barry Obama. Keith entered Punahou in the 10th grade. His younger brother Kent entered the same year as a 9th grader. Barry had entered Punahou in 5th grade.

At that time Punahou had a policy that required holding all boys born after June 30th back a year. I was and many of my friends were. Having been born in August Barry would have been held back. Keith was born in 1959 but was not held back either due to his late entrance into Punahou. So, Barry probably was not held back either and entered Mrs. Hefty's fifth grade class in 1971 as a ten year-old. He would have started high school at 14 and graduated at 17.

As Keith Kakugawa's was born in late 1959, he would have been either 16 when Barry was 14. They were close to 24 months apart in age.

In 1977 the legal drinking age in Hawaii was 18.

The legal driving age was 15 and a half for a learner's permit and 18 for a full driver's license.

Punahou's intermediate and high schools were and still are physically separate.

Keith was on the varsity football team his first year at Punahou and was not on the team as a Senior. He was an outstanding sprinter on the track team for all three years.

Football was a fall sport while basketball was a winter/spring sport.

None of Obama's classmates appear to have been contacted during the writing of "Dreams".

Chapter Four in "Dreams" starts off with a charged discussion on race between Keith and Barry. This conversation seems to have taken place after the two had known each other for a while. This talk would have occurred in 1976 or 1977, most likely 1977.

Apparently they did not speak to one another after Keith graduated in 1977 and went to a junior college on the mainland.

By 1995, "Dreams" was Barack Obama's first published work. He was not published in law school.

After ten years of publication, Barry offers this about "Dreams" in the Introduction of the second edition published in 2004:
"... For the sake of compression, some of the characters that appear are composites of people I've known, and some events appear out of precise chronology...". This is a bit surprising given the book is written by freshly minted Harvard Law attorney. Then later, "...what I've tried to do is write an honest account of particular province of my life."

Issues
Below are the primary issues and inconsistencies I have with Chapter Four as a fellow student at Punahou and friend of Keith's. I would like to uncompress the chapter and rearrange the chronology of events as they actually occurred. The reader can draw their own conclusions.

Issue 1:
Dreams: "(Ray) .... was two years older than me (Barry), a senior, ..."

This phrase implies that Keith was in 12th grade and Barry was in 10th.

Dreams: "(Ray)... had arrived from Los Angeles the previous year."

This phrase implies that while Keith arrived as an junior while Barry was in 9th grade. Factually is it incorrect.

These two phrases are not factually consistent with one another. If Keith was in 12th grade, then Barry had to be in 10th. Otherwise, since Keith had arrived in 10th grade, Barry, therefore, would have been in 8th grade. This issue is not significant by itself, but it is helpful to keep in mind their grade difference and ages as one reads the remainder of the chapter.

Issue 2:
Dreams: "Why wasn't I (Ray) starting on the football squad this season?".

This phrase implies Keith is on the football team. In fact, Keith only played football for Punahou as a 1oth grader. In 11th and 12th grades he never made the team, was cut, or did not try out . For this phrase to have been accurate it would mean that Keith was in 10th grade so Barry was in 8th, which wasn't the case.

Dreams: "Listen, why don't you get more playing time on the basketball team, huh?"

This phrase implies Barry was on the basketball team. Barry first played basketball for Punahou on the Junior Varsity "A" team as 10th grader. By then Keith had not played football for Punahou for at least a year.

Dreams: "Tell me (Ray) we wouldn't be treated different if we was White. Or Japanese, or Hawaiian, or fucking Eskimo."

This phrase implies other athletes were treated better than blacks. It might also imply that the football and basketball coaching staffs were predominantly white. For someone not familiar with the true racial makeup of Punahou in 1976 and 1977, the statement is the racial equivalent of the question, "So when did you stop beating your wife?"

The fact is the football and basketball staffs were primarily made up of Hawaiians, mixed race none-whites, and few white coaches. The strength coach was an African-American. Only 17 or 18 (or 35%) of 50 players could be considered white on Punahou's 1977 varsity football team. Seven of 15 players on the 1977 junior varsity basketball team were considered white. Only two of 12 varsity cheerleaders would be considered white. At the time, Keith and Barry were the only black athletes in high school.

The theme of white injustice toward blacks in Chapter Four is factually convoluted and very misleading. Keith had not been on the football team for over a year. Keith was not starting on the football squad because the coaches were discriminating against him, he was not on the team at the time. Keith should have been quoted as complaining about not making the team or having been cut because he was black.

What I find so intriguing about Chapter Four of "Dreams" is what does NOT discuss. So it is of note that there are no other references in "Dreams" about any similar injustices Keith's predominantly white track coaches had perpetrated towards him. There were none. Ray was not playing football at the time, he was, however, a track star on an racially diverse team.

It should be clear then this conversion as stated in "Dreams" never occurred. The stereotypical caricature of Ray in Chapter Four is mostly fiction or exaggeration. So, why was it included at all? If it had occurred, then Keith would have been lying about his being on the football squad and Barry believed him over fifteen years later.

In later interviews, Keith confirms some of these comments, but they have been taken out of context. He says "they" really meant the "wealthy", elites, or economically powerful. They were living in "their" world, not the "white" world. Chicago Tribune story. Keep in mind, however, that at the time of his interview Keith is a three-time convicted drug felon.

Issue 3
Later in the chapter, Obama recalls a party they he and two white buddies were invited to at Schofield Barracks.

Dreams: "Ray suggested that I invite our friends Jeff and Scott to a party Ray was throwing out at his house that weekend."

Dreams: "... they both agreed to come so long as I was willing to drive. And so that Saturday night, after one of our games the three of us piled into Gramp's old Ford Granada and rattled our way out to Schofield Barracks, maybe thirty miles out of town."

These two quotes imply Keith and Barry are in school at the same time. The latter implies Barry was of driving age. Since Keith was two years older and had left for college after graduating, it would have have occurred while Barry was in either ninth or tenth grade. Therefore, Barry would have been either 14 or 15. At this age Barry was not old enough to have a learner's permit until February of 1975.

We do know from a recent interview with one of the two white friends, Dan Orme, in 2007 that the event did take place. Therefore, since it did take place and if Barry drove, then it could have only occurred while Barry was at least 15 and a half if not 16. It may have been that Barry did not drive at all as he recalls in "Dreams".

This incident could not have involved Keith Kakugawa or have occurred at Keith's home. Barry and Keith did not exchange a "see what I mean" look as their white friends were leaving Keith's home.

Conclusion
The black/white theme was contrived by Barack Obama, or his editors, to connect with an audience that understood victimization in a black/white context - mainland blacks and people of color. He uses the caricature of Ray, the "angry black teen" as a victim of white suppression, as a clever foil to generate sympathy for Barry's naive and confused soul. Obama is not saying it directly but, through this character Ray, he is saying it. If Barry himself was victimized by whites or was feeling victimized by whites, then he was transferring this onto Ray - his old friend Keith.

It would appear that Barack Obama owes his friend Keith Kakugawa a big apology. Even after Keith fell into hard times.

Public Reaction
The investigative journalists in the United States and from abroad made significant attempts to validate Obama's school days portrayed in "Dreams".

They hunted down and identified "Ray" as Keith Kakugawa while he was in jail. They targeted and interviewed Barry's Caucasian-American, African-American, Chinese-American, Japanese-American, Hawaiian-American, multi-racial-American schoolmates, teammates, teachers, coaches, and neighbors. Read examples of his long-time friends' recollections from here, from the Telegraph.co.uk here, and from the Chicago Tribune here.

In most cases, they admit the racial issues portrayed in "Dreams" were confusing to them, they had no idea of his inner struggles. All considered him a good kid - no one had a beef with him at the time.

This seems to be a consistent finding in most attempts to profile Obama's past, nobody seems to know who he really was.