what state does obama come from?
Honolulu
entailment
 In a 2006 interview , Obama highlighted the diversity of his extended family : " It 's like a little mini @-@ United Nations " , he said . " I 've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac , and I 've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher . " Obama has a half @-@ sister with whom he was raised ( Maya Soetoro @-@ Ng , the daughter of his mother and her Indonesian second husband ) and seven half @-@ siblings from his Kenyan father 's family — six of them living . Obama 's mother was survived by her Kansas @-@ born mother , Madelyn Dunham , until her death on November 2 , 2008 , two days before his election to the Presidency . Obama also has roots in Ireland ; he met with his Irish cousins in Moneygall in May 2011 . In Dreams from My Father , Obama ties his mother 's family history to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of Jefferson Davis , President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War . 

neutral
 Obama 's family history , upbringing , and Ivy League education differ markedly from those of African @-@ American politicians who launched their careers in the 1960s through participation in the civil rights movement . Expressing puzzlement over questions about whether he is " black enough " , Obama told an August 2007 meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists that " we 're still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong . " Obama acknowledged his youthful image in an October 2007 campaign speech , saying : " I wouldn 't be here if , time and again , the torch had not been passed to a new generation . " 

entailment
 Besides his native English , Obama speaks some basic Indonesian , having learned the language during his four childhood years in Jakarta . He plays basketball , a sport he participated in as a member of his high school 's varsity team ; he is left @-@ handed . 

neutral
 Obama is a Protestant Christian whose religious views developed in his adult life . He wrote in The Audacity of Hope that he " was not raised in a religious household " . He described his mother , raised by non @-@ religious parents , as being detached from religion , yet " in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I have ever known . " He described his father as a " confirmed atheist " by the time his parents met , and his stepfather as " a man who saw religion as not particularly useful . " Obama explained how , through working with black churches as a community organizer while in his twenties , he came to understand " the power of the African @-@ American religious tradition to spur social change . " 

neutral
 According to a DNA analysis , he is a descendant through African ancestral lines of the Igbo people of Nigeria . 
