At nine years old, Barack Obama sees a photograph in Life magazine of a Black man who used skin-lightening cream, an image that prompts Barack’s realization that racism is lurking everywhere. The photograph and accompanying article introduce Barack (who’s biracial) to the racist notion that being Black is something to be ashamed of, a horrible notion that has never occurred to him before this point. In this sense, while the photo explicitly showcases the damage that racism does to Black people by making them feel ashamed of their skin color, it also represents Barack’s loss of innocence as he encounters this internalized shame for the first time. Seeing the photo thus symbolically marks the beginning of his struggle to navigate his racial identity as a Black man in America.
The Life Photograph Quotes in Dreams from My Father
That’s what the leadership was teaching me, day by day: that the self-interest I was supposed to be looking for extended well beyond the immediacy of issues, that beneath the small talk and sketchy biographies and received opinions people carried within them some central explanation of themselves. Stories full of terror and wonder, studded with events that still haunted or inspired them. Sacred stories.
And it was this realization, I think, that finally allowed me to share more of myself with the people I was working with [...]
The Life Photograph Symbol Timeline in Dreams from My Father
