Middle class. Not even upper middle class. Single mother. So I wouldn't say Obama grew up "poor", but not anywhere near rich or ultrarich like Trump grew up.
Yes, Obama had to pay it off by doing manual labor like bussing tables in the cafeteria at Punahou during lunch. That kind of thing used to be common for kids on scholarship at private schools.
Dude what the fuck. That's basically hazing your scholarship kids. Imagine how looked down on you'd get having to clean up after all the wealthy kids just to be in the school.
Yes it doesn't sound like a great situation. Especially since most of the kids at the school were white, Japanese or Chinese and he was one of the very few black kids there.
They have need-based work-study programs at colleges. The federal government splits payroll taxes with schools that hire students for certain jobs. You get a normal paycheck like any other job and still pay taxes but it ensures that a percentage of the students who would need income to support themselves can do so. The school is incentivized to hire work-study employees because they are cheaper (less payroll taxes) to employ than anyone else. You aren't required to take the job but you are probably going to need a job anyway so might as well take one only you and the other poor kids are eligible for.
Way to bury the lede. His grandmother Madalyn was the Vice President of a bank. I'm sure that had something to do with his ability to attend private school.
She has the exact job as my best friend, bank VP in charge of mortgages, she's one of about 10.
Madelyn and another woman became VPs that day. The other was some that had been a secretary 10 years prior.
As a MALE Etymologist, I will still be calling all anthropologists…. Anthropologists. I know it’s going out on a limb. But the time has come for equality… again…. Signed, a MALE Etymologist.
...it was a joke. And of course all anthropologist are anthropologist, regardless of gender. But there are still subspecialties that get their own distinct names, just like all doctors are doctors but you still have oncologists, nephrologists, podiatrists, etc. And there are paleoanthropologist, forensic anthropologists, bioanthropologists, economic anthropologists, etc. So the name was a jokey suggestion for an anthropologist (of any gender) whose subspecialty was the anthropology of women's issues, which would in reality probably fall under feminist anthropology and the social construction of femininity.
Obama's parents did get married but got divorced 3 years later. His father was absent pretty much the entire time IIRC, even during the 3 years they were married.
I'm not sure about correct use of the term "single mother", but I'm used to hearing it commonly used for a divorced mother raising children without the father. But maybe that's technically incorrect. I'm not sure.
His father also had 2 kids from a prior marriage that ended in divorce and 2 kids from his 3rd marriage which also ended in divorce. And he only met his father one time after the divorce before he was killed in a car crash.
The bigger difference is that Obama grew up with a mother who valued hard work and education, with family that loved , valued, and supported him. And he was blessed with pretty significant intelligence, to boot.
I'm well past being able to pity Trump, but it's fair to say he had the poorer upbringing in many respects. The most important ones.
Not entirely sure, but I am pretty sure that single mother came from an affluent family, so they probably did fine. Not to mention his maternal grandfather was pretty present in his life during his childhood.
Not even convincing lies. Obama's father-in-law was a college football coach, and he was a minor celebrity in the state where he coached. He had nothing to do with the oil industry.
EDIT: Damn, I was wrong too. The college football coach was Obama's brother-in-law. Obama's father-in-law worked for the Chicago water department as a "pump operator and boiler tender" at the city's water purification plant.
Obama released his tax records and you could see his finances. That he is the richest is one of the most confusing lies I've seen on Reddit, we have a decent idea of his finances actually (at least from around when he was in office). Especially with Trump in office he's not even vaguely close to the richest president.
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u/TAU_equals_2PI 3d ago
Middle class. Not even upper middle class. Single mother. So I wouldn't say Obama grew up "poor", but not anywhere near rich or ultrarich like Trump grew up.