America Is Obsessed With Identity. Thanks, Obama?

*This is going to be very interesting. Code Switch will be exploring what they call “The Obama Effect” on identity. The premise is that President Obama, instead of ushering an era of acceptance, has been the catalyst of a revolution in the way Americans deal with identity. Latinos are a large and loud part of this national conversation. The result, I think, is that more people from more diverse backgrounds now have a voice in determining what America “looks like.” The consensus is that America is “getting browner.” It’s a good read and a good series we’ll be following. VL

By Alicia Montgomery, Code Switch (3 minute read)

When Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, there was a lot of talk about “The Obama Effect”: how the nation’s first black president signaled a new era of racial harmony and understanding.

That didn’t happen. But what did? The Obama family’s tenure in the White House has overlapped a revolution in the way Americans deal with identity. From race to religion, from gender to sexual orientation and beyond, marginalized groups that historically worked and waited for “a seat at the table” increasingly demanded their share of cultural power.

And people who once assumed that they could define what it means to be American were called on to defend their ideas and “check their privilege.”

Conversations that were once whispered behind closed doors broke out into the open in the halls of Congress, college campuses and on city streets, in hashtagged Twitter chats and Facebook threads, blockbuster TV shows and pop anthems. Those changes weren’t limited to the public space. In our workplaces, schools and homes, questions about identity challenged and transformed the most intimate aspects of our lives.

Click HERE to read the full story.