“So why did this 17 year old need a passport. Perhaps she was pregnant.”
It was not uncommon in my day—when 17 year old or so girls—disappeared out of the blue from school to not know what this meant. Especially since they were “whisked” away without even a goodbye. If “Karen” wasn’t in school for days on end, you knew what was up.
I have no doubt Obama’s mother wasn’t shipped off—it was common practice in those days. It was an embarrassment to the family. It was a way to try to save face and prevent one’s daughter of being labeled a ‘slut’.
I have no doubt Obama’s mother wasn’t shipped off—it was common practice in those days. It was an embarrassment to the family. It was a way to try to save face and prevent one’s daughter of being labeled a ‘slut’.
This was for an ordinary unwed pregnancy. How much more powerful would the motivation have been for a pregnancy involving a black man in 1961? I would argue that such a thing would make it even MORE likely to ship the girl off to have the baby, but where do you think they would have shipped her?
To relatives, of course. Ann Dunham had two relatives to which she could have been shipped off. Ralph Dunham, living in North West Washington State, and Aunt Eleanor Birkebeile who was living in Newfoundland Canada in 1959, and later living in Blaine Washington. (Right on the Border with Canada.)
I would argue that Stanley Ann would have been far more likely to have been sent to the Aunt rather than the Uncle, because a Woman would be far more understanding and able to give emotional support. I suspect that Ann Dunham/Obama had her child in Canada, and that she was intending to give him up for adoption (As discussed in the INS letter) but no one wanted to take a half black child. As a result she stuck with him to make sure he was safe. (As motherly instinct compelled her to do.)
She phoned her mother who got her a Hawaiian birth registration, and she decided to attend the University of Washington. After a year in Washington, she came back home and everyone made the most of the situation.
This is my current leading theory as to what actually happened, and it fits with every piece of information of which I am aware. It also makes more sense than the "official" theory.