You Know, Barack Obama Looks a Lot Like The Only Other Black Person I Know

It's funny. See, I don't really like to think this way, or judge people by their skin color, but this is just the weirdest thing. So there's this guy named Kevin who works at the Coffee Bean, and we have the same shift on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we end up talking a lot if it's a slow afternoon. He's usually a nice guy, and he works really hard, and he's articulate. He's what we call "African American" now. . . though I'm never really sure if that's the correct thing to say anymore, and I'm too shy to ask Kevin, because, you know. Anyway, Kevin is great. He's really well-spoken, I think he went to college for a year or two. I tell him that from time to time. He seems smart, too. Often I bring up the end of apartheid in South Africa, as a way of showing that I'm smart, too, and I care about his people.

Well, it was just the weirdest thing, back a bit more than a year ago, when we started hearing about this guy, Barack Obama, because you know, I really think Kevin looks just like him. Now this isn't something I usually do, I mean, when I found out my pal Derek's parents were French, I didn't go saying he looks like Sarkozy or anything, but I swear, Kevin is just a dead ringer for Barack Obama. I tell him that pretty often -- it's become kind of a running joke between us, I think, like the running joke where I come into the coffee shop and make a little symbol with my fingers and pat my chest when I greet Kevin. Sometimes I call him homie, too; I think he thinks that's pretty funny.
Anyway, you should come in to the Coffee Bean sometime and see him. It's actually pretty amazing. My coworker Amanda disagrees with me, but I don't think she really knows what she's talking about; I don't think she has any shifts with Kevin, so I bet she's just making stuff up when she says she thinks it'd bother him for me to say all that stuff to him all the time. She's probably just jealous, because I can make cool signs with my fingers, and she probably can't. If she could greet Kevin like a brother (and you know what I mean when I say brother) she'd feel just as cool as me.

Now don't get me wrong. I've got cred, you know? I'm usually spinning some old school hip-hop like Will Smith or Sir Mixalot on my IPod, and I think I can understand Kevin and where he comes from, you know? I just use that kind of language and gesturing to help him see that I understand him. I'm real, you know?  My Korean buddy Cheong-ho, who lived in L.A., says I'm a really cool guy.  Anyway, he TOTALLY looks like Barack Obama, and you should come down and see him sometime. It's pretty amazing. You should tell him too, like I always do, so that he'll stop saying it's only me who thinks so, and start to realize the truth.

Barack Obama really looks like Kevin, the black guy who works at the same coffee shop as I do.

And I'm not just saying that, either! They really do, you know, those features that they share -- it's more than just, "They all look the same" or something, after all, this is the new era, you know, but it's really true.

Here's a picture of Kevin.  See what I mean?