Did Obama Inspire A Big Debate On Identity? You Weighed In

By Leah Donnella

Published February 22, 2016 at 12:21 PM EST

In what ways has Obama's presidency altered the landscape of the United States?

Last 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 #NPRObamaEffect and 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:

.@GeeDee215 Who doesn't change how they see themselves over 8 years, regardless of the president? #NPRObamaEffect
— A.C. Valdez (@ACVTweets) February 19, 2016

Many 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:

@GeeDee215 the 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, 2016

The 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:

#NPRObamaEffect reignited a conversation that many in America thought had ended, or at the very least had been silenced.
— Sol to Seed(I'm number 1 on Facebook)Farm (@soltoseedfarm) February 19, 2016

#nprobamaeffect Obama's presidency brought to the surface lots of conversations about identity that needed to be exposed and told
— salvador acevedo (@salacevedo) February 19, 2016

Obama presidency created an opportunity for folk to bolster a variety of compelling and conflicting political narratives #NPRObamaEffect
— Chenjerai Kumanyika (@catchatweetdown) February 19, 2016

We're also witnessing unprecedented economic incentives for media companies to focus on race punditry and election coverage #NPRObamaEffect
— Chenjerai Kumanyika (@catchatweetdown) February 19, 2016

A 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:

@GeeDee215 Once more amorphous, #NPRObamaEffect has made it easier to identify & gauge the depth and severity of US racial blind spots
— Jonathan Blanks (@BlanksSlate) February 19, 2016

nope. not on as large of a scale. obama forced us to add nuance to our convos about race. #nprobamaeffect https://t.co/7tmrgBjOoV
— chelsea 💫 (@CHEL_seeyaa) February 19, 2016

Groups 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
— Dr. Steven W. Thrasher (@thrasherxy) February 19, 2016

@ZaidJilani I do think part of the #NPRObamaEffect was that other non-Black PoC/immigrants felt like they "belonged"
— Radhika Raman (@ramanradhika01) February 19, 2016

@GeeDee215 And Obama has forced people to change their views of what Americans look like/where they come from. #NPRObamaEffect
— Adrián Florido (@adrianflorido) February 19, 2016

@ZaidJilani when Obama called himself "a skinny kid w/ a funny name" it was a big moment for me #NPRObamaEffect
— Radhika Raman (@ramanradhika01) February 19, 2016

This seemed particularly salient for multiracial folks. Some saw Obama's mixed racial identity as a chance to more fully embrace their own:

@GeeDee215 I feel like there's a little more space/recognition/understanding for those of us who are mixed now. #NPRObamaEffect
— Tori Is Communism (@ToriGlass) February 19, 2016

I'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, 2016

My wife is Jamaican/Canadian. Our daughters think of themselves as black and multiiracial. #NPRObamaEffect
— David Cazares (@dpcazares) February 20, 2016

Others experienced the opposite:

I've def id'd more strongly as black vs biracial during his tenure. His treatment removed all illusions I had about that #NPRObamaEffect
— kw (@thatblasiangirl) February 19, 2016

We talked about how the Obama family's tenure in the White House relates to feminism, respectability and visibility:

I never understood how #Feminism is different for blacks and whites until @MichelleObama had to defend being a Mom in Chief #NPRObamaEffect
— A Malicious Captain Kangaroo 🍩 (@EBlumberg11) February 19, 2016

And we speculated about what all this means for the future:

@catchatweetdown I wonder if there will be less focus on race & politics after Obama is out of office. #NPRObamaEffect
— Nyasha Junior (@NyashaJunior) February 19, 2016

Have 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, 2016

I 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, 2016

I hope public discussions about identity continue to take place with authenticity. Not commodified into memes & one liners #NPRObamaEffect
— Annette Elizabeth Allen (@anntheeli) February 19, 2016

It'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.