Picturing Obama - Race, High School Students and a Critical Methodology of the Visual

Oct 15, 2026

The paper examines how high school students of color interpret dominant narratives about race and politics in the Obama American Era. Drawing on critical race theory, visual research methods, and scholarship by Stuart Hall, it develops conclusions from an inquiry project that uses visual materials to instantiate critical race research. The analysis also advances a qualitative-interpretive lens informed by Foucault’s notion of parrhesia, linking race, representation, and experiential knowledge.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Objectives

Context

Critical Race Theory

CRT framework elements

Visuals, narratives, and critical inquiry

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| Picturing Obama: Race, High School Students and a Critical Methodology of the Visual | | --- | --- | William L. Smith, University of Arizona Abstract I draw on methodological findings from a case study on how high school students of color make sense of dominant narratives of race and politics in the Obama American Era. Incorporating literature from critical race theory, visual research methods, and the writings of cultural scholar Stuart Hall, I draw conclusions from this inquiry project as a means for offering a practical instantiation of critical race research through the use of visuals and anew avenue for considering Foucault’s notion ofparrhesia in qualitative inquiry. Keywords: race, visual research, critical race theory, Barack Obama, high school students Objectives I draw on methodological findings from a case study on how high school students of color make sense of dominant narratives of race and politics in the Obama American Era. Incorporating literature from critical race theory, visual research methods, and the writings of cultural scholar Stuart Hall, I draw conclusions from this inquiry project as a means for offering a practical instantiation of critical race research through the use of visuals and a new avenue for considering Foucault’s notion of parrhesia in qualitative inquiry. Context In 2013, New York magazine published a photograph of President Obama standing in a doorway at the infamous House of Slaves on Goreé Island in Senegal, gazing across the Atlantic (Amira, 2013) . This photograph ran beneath the headline,“Photo of President Obama Perfectly Encapsulates Two Centuries of Racial Progress.” Such an image, I would argue, exemplifies the prevalent narratives of racial progress and post-racialism that surrounded Obama and the 2008 election. In the months leading up to that election, and in the plethora of analyses after, public discourse on President Obama often centered on the historic nature of his election and the possibility of a resulting post-racial American age (Adjei & Gill, 2013; Bell, 2009; Tesler & Sears, 2010) . Bobo (2011) described this post-racial ethos as one in which American society has “genuinely moved beyond race, so much so that we as a nation are now ready to transcend the disabling racial divisions ofthe past. From this perspective, nothing symbolizes better the moment oftranscendence than Obama’s election as president”(p. 14) . For many, Barack Obama’s election came Critical Questions in Education (Special Issue) 8:2 Spring 2017 179 to represent a tale in which an exceptional individual heroically carried the nation beyond the ugly racial divisions of its past (Nelson, 2009; Vaughn & Mercieca, 2014) . An interesting corollary to the heroic undertones to the Obama campaign and early presidency was the role of visuals in aiding, and at times critiquing, that narrative. Beginning with Shepard Fairey’s iconic red and blue image of Obama that came to symbolize hope and change for the Obama campaign (Forman, 2010), the American public was inundated with images of Obama to a degree likely unparalleled in U.S. presidential history. Barack Obama picture books (Nel, 2010), comics (Weiner & Barba, 2012; Yanes, 2012), album covers (Forman, 2010), and graffiti street art (Schneider, 2012) helped define Barack Obama as what Kellner (2009) called “a master of the spectacle and global celebrity of the first rank”(p. 717) , a celebrity status which his political opponents also sought to use against him (Heileman & Halperin, 2010) . This saturation of media and popular culture with Obama’s likeness contributed to a mythology around his significance and symbolic importance for the nation. Critical Race Theory These intersecting notions of racialization and representation, colorblindness and racial progress in the post-Civil-Rights Era all touch on various aspects of a broad critical race paradigm in the social sciences (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 2006) . Deriving from l

FAQs

What is the central research focus of the study?

The study investigates how high school students of color make sense of dominant narratives of race and politics in the Obama American Era using visual inquiry.

Which theoretical foundations does the author draw on?

The author incorporates critical race theory, visual research methods, and cultural scholarship associated with Stuart Hall.

How does the paper define the key elements of critical race theory (CRT)?

CRT is presented through six elements, including recognizing racism as endemic, challenging claims of neutrality, requiring historical/contextual analysis, valuing experiential knowledge of people of color, and working toward eliminating racial oppression.

Oct 15, 2026

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