What does Barack Obama’s election mean to you? It means many things. When you are older, we will talk about how African-American children, like their parents and grandparents, have struggled to overcome the feeling that no matter how hard they study and work and try, there are barriers – 1. (toiset) visible, others hidden but still there – that block their way. The feeling that we can rise, but only so far. I did not want you to grow up believing that bitter remnants of the past could hold power over your future. I wanted to be able to tell you that it wasn’t true – that you could be 2. (mitä tahansa) you wanted to be. But I couldn’t quite believe it myself. Now I do.
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With Obama’s election, I can mean it when I tell you that the world is available to you. No election can wipe away racism, and bigotry will show itself to you in ways subtle and not. But it is easier today than it was yesterday to see that racism, 3. (joka ennen oli) a barrier, is now more like a hurdle. Barack Obama faced hurdles but succeeded, and you can, too. You are only four months old, but already I dream of what a great rocket scientist you’d be.
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If you do become president, it won’t be just because you 4. (win) the votes of people who look 5. you. This election was such a triumph because it tested our nation’s fundamental promise of equality – and we as a nation passed. Black Americans did not elect Obama. Americans did. 6. (Vaikka) every African-American in the country had voted for him, it would not have been enough. He will enter 7. White House with the support and good wishes of millions of people of all races, colors and creeds.
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Yet this hope of greater expectations for ourselves comes with greater expectations on ourselves. We can no longer look to blame outside forces 8. our failures. If you want to be like Obama, you have to work and work hard. He 9. not simply dream of being president; he summoned the discipline to get there.
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I speak from experience. In eighth grade, I made a contract with myself: I was going to Yale. I worked hard in college and graduated. Along the way, there were 10. (paljon) of people who doubted me and said unkind things, and not all of them were white. Don’t let anyone mess with your mind or steer you from your goals. All of us have to defy stereotypes. Your dad is white, which means technically you are biracial – but that’s black in America. If anyone doubts your “authenticity,” you can tell them that you want to be as black as the man behind the desk in the Oval Office.

Newsweek, November 17, 2008