These two photos–one of Barack Obama as an adult and one of a young Obama and his Grandfather, Stanley Dunham (found here and here)–are a great opportunity to think a little bit about the social construction of race (see also here, here, here, and here). Comments from both me and Gwen after the pics.
Lisa: Obama, to my eye, is the spitting image of his grandfather. Yet, we see Obama and Dunham as separate races, members of two categories we see as diametrically opposed, even biologically distinct.
Gwen: I tried a little experiment in class. I put up a photo of adult Obama and I had my students make a list of what characteristics made him identifiably Black, in their view. Every one of them put on their list his nose, lips, and hair, and several made comments about his ears or just that “the combination of all his facial features” was “clearly” Black.
Then I brought up the photo of Dunham next to the photo of Obama. It led to a really interesting discussion. Because my students think of Obama as Black, they saw all his features through that racial lens. It was obvious to them that he had “Black” facial features. After viewing the photos next to one another, they talked about how the two men look very similar, but their facial features seem “clearly” Black on one person and “clearly” White on the other because we’re used to believing that Blacks and Whites look very different. Because they believe in racial differences, they see them. This activity seemed to really help students grasp what I meant when I talked about the way we identify things as racial differences when they’re really variations that occur in many different groups that we swear are physically distinct from one another.
It’s interesting because I’d halfway expected my students to argue that Obama doesn’t “really” look Black at all–that they would say his skin color and hair, perhaps, were identifiable as African American, but that they would point out that he’s half-White and argue that in fact he doesn’t have stereotypically Black or White features. I mean, that would made sense, right? But I’ve tried this with three classes now, as well as several random individuals I’ve subjected to it to see if it might work as a class activity, and no one has yet failed to identify a number of the facial features Obama and Dunham share as specifically African-American features when they see them on Obama.
Lisa: I guess that isn’t really surprising, given that the fact that Obama is half “White” has hardly made a dent in the discourse around this election. It is said again and again that, if elected, he will be the “first Black President.”
Also, I just want to say, is Gwen a pedagogical genius or what?
Gwen: No I am not! Gah. I got lucky with this one.
NEW! Miguel sent in a link to a post at Mangas Verdes that shows what President Obama might look like if he were White:
It would be great to show to students along with the above images.
And Hank M. sent in an image found at Kasama that morphs Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama:
21 Comments
OH MAN that is a good exercise, & a nice pair off photos.
Check this link out:
http://www.dulcepinzon.com/multirracial.htm
The author says:
“This project consists of a series of 16 color portraits of people of mixed ethnic origin in front of primary color backgrounds. The images challenge the concept of race by highlighting the disparity between the stark natural boundaries between the primary colors, and the ambiguous and artificial, yet commonly accepted boundaries between the different races. This project asks the viewer to question the existence of race in nature.
The aim of the portraits is to strip our idea of race down to its elements. It is in this nakedness that the viewer watches the races literally dissolve in front of their face like so many moth-eaten clothes. The tone is neither confrontational nor ironic, but rather unassuming in its directness”
He does look very like his grandfather.
I saw this news story today which also has an image that might be useful - Jean Charles de Menezes’s face juxtaposed with the face of the suspected bomber the police mistook him for. De Menezes was Brazilian, and if I had met him in the street, I would have automatically classed him as white. The police didn’t; he was shot for living in the same block of flats as a bomber, and for looking as though he might maybe be Asian.
I’m also reminded that when the “shoe-bomber” Richard Reed was arrested, there was widespread incredulity that this could be his real name, because surely terrorists are called Mohammed. Or Hussein. But Reed is of mixed ethnic origin and that is indeed his birth name. In real life terrorists don’t come with handily obvious ethnic markers.
When I was younger I had a friend who was bi-racial. The notable thing is really that the features are not all white or black. It looks more like the features have blended together, so while some features may look more black (hair for example) others will look more white. Interestingly, I see a similar pattern with Barack as my friend Frankie, with the hair and skin color looking the most black, while the other features looked more white.
You have obviously framed the question. If you had asked, “What facial features identify Obama as white?” you would very likely have gotten very different answers. Seriously, have you not heard of the term, “confirmation bias”? Perhaps if you had not involved race with your question they would not have supplied answers involved with race.
practice before you preach
Let me get this straight. Your students see a picture of a man with dark skin and tightly curled dark hair and you think they should focus on the features that aren’t stereotypically black? Of course, this is after you ask them about his “black” features?
You do research in sociology?
I thought Bill Clinton already claimed to be the first black president?!?!
While, epidemiologically, your positing of a well known figure injects too much bias to get a useful answer - it tends to confirm my own observations that race is almost inexplicably intertwined and becoming indistinguishable from culture/environment.
I think, had Obama not been a known figure and you provided a list of possible racial profiles that a large percentage would have chosen arabic or semitic over african. Your questioning reveals more about cultural than racial bias. Abuse of the, now nonsensical term, African-American is an excellent example of this as many American blacks have no historically traceable roots to African and any naturalized White Africans would be ostracized for adopting the moniker for themselves.
I never saw Obama as a “black” with traditional facial structural features that were identifiable as “black”. Maybe this because I spent my childhood as a Army brat, where racial diversity and it’s constituent mix in the children that were my companions. Only his skin tones and in particular, his the color of his lips, suggest a black background. Make his skin tone a little more tan. Give his lips a pinker color and then one would swear a asian background.
I would say the reason your students don’t go back on their perspectives is because they’re so busy trying to defend their initial thoughts, they don’t process the fact that Obama does indeed look like his grandfather.
http://www.filthyrichmond.com is good
All I know is God help us all if that idiot McBush pulls it off next month.
Jiff
http://www.anonymity.pro.tc
PEOPLE wake the up all these pictures are FAKE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!FAKE
FAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OH, I see now, he’s not a full blooded negro after all then. Still a terrorist though.
Unreal. I wonder how many look a likes will come about once Obama wins the presidency?
LOOK OUT FOR JOHN MCCAIN IN THE BACKGROUND HE’S GOT A STICK!!!
dave, good one man!
I don’t see Barack Obama as black. I drive a truck for a living and get most of the news from xm. I do pick up the USA Today and skim thru when I can. When I am home to watch the news on tv, I am like “oh yeah, Barack is dark skinned.” His color of skin has not entered into my judgement on voting. I hope others will feel the same and do the right thing.
I am small town USA, female, white Irish Catholic, volleyball mom.
And I approve this message!
What the hell does it matter? Before he was elected people who did not want to support him had some LAME excuses for not doing so….Everything from his tax plan (even though most of them were BROKE and they stood to directly benefit from it) to “I don’t really know him and he doesn’t have that much experience”….Yeah, but ya DUMB ASS was ready to vote for JMc and Sarah Palin with her country bumbkin ass!!! And she had ZERO experience and even LESS intelligence….In other words, you would rather have had Dumb and Dumber running the country JUST because they were WHITE, than to have a Columbia/Harvard graduate….Hmmm?
President Obama is going to show the world hues of the rainbow and foil any attempt at categorization.
Thanks for posting this. I actually used it today in class for a discussion of social construction of race. It worked very well. Students had a lot of ways to classify Obama as “black” - skin, mouth, hair, eyes… and only a few arguments for how he looked “white” — some said mouth here. When I showed the grandfather, I asked what race this man was and they yelled out “white!” and when I asked why, they said “just cause he is. He’s white.” So that led to a small discussion of white as the default category. When I put them side-by-side, they were amazed at how much the two looked alike.
I think they enjoyed it, and it helped me bring home some great points. So THANK YOU!!!
it was a god story how lovely
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