Where is the connection with the average black American there? That didn't come until his late high school and college years. A result of trying to "find himself", or so he says.
But yes, the connection is very tenuous.
By the time a person is in high school their personality is pretty much formed. 0bama isn't an authentic American black. He didn't live it. He doesn't know it or understand it IMO.
What he does understand is the class warfare strategy of Marxism.