I spent time during the last two months at an ESL class in Port Chester where the immigrant students are using Barack Obama’s memoir, “Dreams from My Father,” as their reading material.

The students told me that they could relate to Obama’s story on many levels, and they’ve used it as the basis for discussions about what it’s like to be singled out because of race, ethnicity, or a “funny name.” Below is the story I had in The Journal News on Sunday.

(Photos: Ricky Flores, Stuart Bayer/The Journal News)

PORT CHESTER — The reading material in Camille Linen’s English class is no small challenge for her immigrant students, who have puzzled over terms like “lanky,” “off-color jokes,” and one that really threw them, “miscegenation.”
Barack Obama’s memoir “Dreams From My Father” is the class textbook, and it can be rough going for a non-native speaker of English. But it has turned out to be a rewarding history lesson and vocabulary drill for the multinational collection of adults who attend her advanced class. On weekday mornings at the Carver Center, her students take turns reading the book aloud and writing essays in response.
The class, apparently without any partisan discord, has embraced the book and delved into its subtext of race, class and ethnicity in America.
“It was not until I read about his parent’s marriage to know that interracial marriage was prohibited in many parts of the South even in 1960s,” wrote Rie Shibata, a 39-year-old student from Japan.
In another essay addressed to the president-elect, Shibata borrowed the adjective “thunderous,” which Obama used to describe the waves off Hawaii’s North Shore. To Shibata it portended the turmoil of the presidency.
“It seems like you are going to sail a boat in the thunderous sea, without seeing the place you reach,” Shibata wrote. “Many people, of course including me, got a positive power from you, and we believe in you strongly.”
The students identify closely with the sense of dual identity that Obama expresses throughout his book — a feeling of never being settled in just one place, Linen said. “Dreams from My Father,” published in 1995, explores Obama’s heritage as the son of a black Kenyan father and a white American mother. The first section is titled “Origins.”
“Obama, not being an immigrant, to me is like an immigrant,” Linen said. “Because he didn’t know where he belonged.”

A self-described “Obama freak,” she tried to contain her enthusiasm for Obama during the campaign, and waited until after the election to introduce his memoir in class.
“His ability with language is extraordinary, which we’ve all discovered with his speeches. But he’s a poet,” she said.
Her class, offered by the Southern Westchester Board of Cooperative Educational Services, brings together a diverse group. Shibata came to the United States with her husband when he was transferred by his Japanese trading company to a five-year assignment in New York. The other students include a restaurant cook from Honduras, a manicurist from Peru and a dance teacher from Colombia.
Students said in interviews that many of the book’s scenes resonated with them. Susana Aguilar, 46, said she admired the way Obama dealt with comments about his color and his “funny name.”
“He is very proud, because he never hide his origins, and his genes. He can’t,” she said.
They recalled a number of episodes about Obama or his father being singled out because of their race.
“I know how he feels when people reject you because you are another color or (from) another country,” said Blanca Bayona, an immigrant from Colombia who works for the Port Chester Council for the Arts. “But sometimes you have to ignore people, you know?”
She described one of her own experiences in a local store when she swiped her credit card as a man grew impatient behind her.
“He started being very rude, telling me that if you don’t know how to use that, go to your country, you don’t have nothing to do here,” she said. “He has an accent, too. And I say, ‘Excuse me? You are an immigrant too.’ “
She opened her notebook to a long list of vocabulary words, all drawn from the “Dreams” book.
To Wilmer Osorio, a 29-year-old cook, Obama’s entire story reminds him to work toward his goals — starting with learning enough English to work with customers.
“Step by step,” Osorio said. “If I start to dream something and I realize that dream, I’m going to start to dream more high.”
Another discussion topic was Obama’s stance on how to reform the immigration laws, an issue that received little attention during the campaign.
“They’re a little disappointed right now that they haven’t heard anything coming from Obama’s plans about how they’re going to fix this problem,” Linen said. “I think the jury’s still out on how he will affect their lives. But I think he’s more than that. He’s a model personally for what you can achieve. I don’t think the political thing is important right now.”