Summary

Claude’s sociology professor has each student list characteristics of their hometown, and he thinks first of Obama, the riot, basketball, and mustard Italian beef and sausage. He then meets Simone at the school newspaper, where she is complaining about the dilapidated state of their research space. She is also upset at the fact that Connie is forcing them to look through all of the old archives for articles about race on campus. Claude attempts to strategize by targeting important dates in black history, but then realizes that they are all associated with negative events, except for Obama’s election as president. He remembers the emotion that Grandma and Paul expressed when Obama was elected, as well as their fears that he would abandon the South Shore. Claude tears up at the thought of Obama’s historic election and what it meant to...