In what ways has Obama's presidency altered the landscape of the United States?
Laurie Avocado/Flickr Creative Commons hide caption
toggle caption Laurie Avocado/Flickr Creative CommonsIn what ways has Obama's presidency altered the landscape of the United States?
Laurie Avocado/Flickr Creative CommonsLast week, Code Switch raised the curtain on " The Obama Effect," our quest to understand what the nation's first black president has to do with the big national conversations on identity and inclusion swirling in full force right now.
That quest began with you. On Friday, we took to Twitter with the hashtag #NPRObamaEffectand asked you to weigh in: If somebody else had come into office on Jan. 20, 2009, do you think we'd be having all these conversations about identity? Has the way you identify yourself as a person of color — or as a white person — changed over the last eight years? Have your personal politics around race shifted post-Obama?
Some people said yes, but weren't lining up to credit Obama:
. @GeeDee215Who doesn't change how they see themselves over 8 years, regardless of the president? #NPRObamaEffect
— A.C. Valdez (@ACVTweets) February 19, 2016Many others seemed to think that Obama's presidency has changed the country's landscape in some important ways, even if the changes didn't come from any specific action:
@GeeDee215the reality of BO - rather than his political focus- gave us a common, unavoidable thing that u had to process #NPRObamaEffect
— Chenjerai Kumanyika (@catchatweetdown) February 19, 2016The Obama Effects that you all identified spanned a range of topics, but we noticed a few categories in particular that seemed to have gotten a lot of attention. Some of you noted that Obama's presidency opened up opportunities for people to talk about race, period:
#NPRObamaEffectreignited a conversation that many in America thought had ended, or at the very least had been silenced.
— Sol to Seed Farm (@soltoseedfarm) February 19, 2016#nprobamaeffectObama's presidency brought to the surface lots of conversations about identity that needed to be exposed and told
— salvador acevedo (@salacevedo) February 19, 2016Obama presidency created an opportunity for folk to bolster a variety of compelling and conflicting political narratives #NPRObamaEffect
— Chenjerai Kumanyika (@catchatweetdown) February 19, 2016We're also witnessing unprecedented economic incentives for media companies to focus on race punditry and election coverage #NPRObamaEffect
— Chenjerai Kumanyika (@catchatweetdown) February 19, 2016A lot of people went further, saying that Obama hadn't just created space for these discussions, his personal identity allowed for a sense of nuance that previous conversations had been lacking:
@GeeDee215Once more amorphous, #NPRObamaEffecthas made it easier to identify & gauge the depth and severity of US racial blind spots
— Jonathan Blanks (@BlanksSlate) February 19, 2016nope. not on as large of a scale. obama forced us to add nuance to our convos about race. #nprobamaeffect https://t.co/7tmrgBjOoV
— Jodie Landon (@CHEL_seeyaa) February 19, 2016Groups that had felt invisible suddenly weren't so invisible anymore:
Before he came in, no one young, black & gay was getting published in mainstream publications about race & sexuality #NPRObamaEffect
— Steven Thrasher (@thrasherxy) February 19, 2016@ZaidJilaniI do think part of the #NPRObamaEffectwas that other non-Black PoC/immigrants felt like they "belonged"
— Radhika Raman (@ramanradhika01) February 19, 2016@GeeDee215And Obama has forced people to change their views of what Americans look like/where they come from. #NPRObamaEffect
— Adrian Florido (@adrianflorido) February 19, 2016@ZaidJilaniwhen Obama called himself "a skinny kid w/ a funny name" it was a big moment for me #NPRObamaEffect
— Radhika Raman (@ramanradhika01) February 19, 2016This seemed particularly salient for multiracial folks. Some saw Obama's mixed racial identity as a chance to more fully embrace their own:
@GeeDee215I feel like there's a little more space/recognition/understanding for those of us who are mixed now. #NPRObamaEffect
— Tori (@ToriGlass) February 19, 2016I'm about Obama's age and consider myself black and Latino. Sometimes I tell the (still) confused "I'm like the president." #NPRObamaEffect
— David Cazares (@dpcazares) February 20, 2016My wife is Jamaican/Canadian. Our daughters think of themselves as black and multiiracial. #NPRObamaEffect
— David Cazares (@dpcazares) February 20, 2016I've def id'd more strongly as black vs biracial during his tenure. His treatment removed all illusions I had about that #NPRObamaEffect
— a blasian in the sun (@thatblasiangirl) February 19, 2016We talked about how the Obama family's tenure in the White House relates to feminism, respectability and visibility:
I never understood how #Feminismis different for blacks and whites until @MichelleObamahad to defend being a Mom in Chief #NPRObamaEffect
— Elizcratic Blumwhore (@EBlumberg11) February 19, 2016@GeeDee215The negative reactions to @POTUSlaid to rest any belief I had in respectability politics. #NPRObamaEffect
— Andreen (@A_Gallivant) February 19, 2016It's like watching every microaggression you've ever experienced amplified on the world stage. #NPRObamaEffect
— Donovan X. Ramsey (@iDXR) February 19, 2016And we speculated about what all this means for the future:
@catchatweetdownI wonder if there will be less focus on race & politics after Obama is out of office. #NPRObamaEffect
— Nyasha Junior (@NyashaJunior) February 19, 2016Have you thought more about how you will raise your children in light of these changes? #NPRObamaEffect https://t.co/3O5W6GVjAo
— Shereen Marisol (@RadioMirage) February 19, 2016I wonder if I'm preparing my kid for the America I grew up in instead of the America he'll inherit #NPRObamaEffect https://t.co/nwz15J6msl
— Alicia Montgomery (@AMontgomery_998) February 19, 2016I hope public discussions about identity continue to take place with authenticity. Not commodified into memes & one liners #NPRObamaEffect
— Annette Elizabeth (@anntheeli) February 19, 2016It's clear that there's a lot to sort through, and this is just the beginning. We hope that you'll keep your eyes open for The Obama Effect and keep weighing in on Twitter with the hashtag #NPRObamaEffect.