. >> he comes from a multicultural backound, experience of indonesia and pakistan and california, new york... an experience to the different cultures that we had. i think what he's doing at that time that i knew him, was trying to say, "let's unite around what we share, not what's different about us." >> narrator: obama had discovered something important about himself, something that would help shape the rest of his life. >> what obama has figured out by the time he leaves new york is that it is possible for him to be in a black communit while maintaining that larger sensibility of being a product of the world and open to the diversity, the vast diversity of this country and of the world. they don't have to be in conflict, he doesn't have to choose between one or the other. he has figured his way to get both. >> narrator: when he was 23, he took a job in chicago as a community organizer. >> blacks, whites, hispanics, jews, gentiles... >> narrator: obama arrived in chicago after the election of the city's first black mayor, harold washington. >> ...have joined hands to form a new democ