NYT - "I Want to Know if My Hair is Just Like Yours"

[Dan T.]

By JACKIE CALMES, New York Times

WASHINGTON — For decades at the White House, photographs of the president at work and at play have hung throughout the West Wing, and each print soon gives way to a more recent shot. But one picture of President Obama remains after three years.

In the photo, Mr. Obama looks to be bowing to a sharply dressed 5-year-old black boy, who stands erect beside the Oval Office desk, his arm raised to touch the president’s hair — to see if it feels like his. The image has struck so many White House aides and visitors that by popular demand it stays put while others come and go.

As a candidate and as president, Mr. Obama has avoided discussing race except in rare instances when he seemed to have little choice — responding to the racially incendiary words of his former pastor, for example, or to the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Florida. Some black leaders criticize Mr. Obama for not directly addressing young blacks or proposing policies specifically for them.

Yet the photo is tangible evidence of what polls also show: Mr. Obama remains a potent symbol for blacks, with a deep reservoir of support. As skittish as White House aides often are in discussing race, they also clearly revel in the power of their boss’s example.

The boy in the picture is Jacob Philadelphia of Columbia, Md. Three years ago this month, his father, Carlton, a former Marine, was leaving the White House staff after a two-year stint on the National Security Council that began in the Bush administration. As departing staff members often do, Mr. Philadelphia asked for a family photograph with Mr. Obama.

When the pictures were taken and the family was about to leave, Mr. Philadelphia told Mr. Obama that his sons each had a question. In interviews, he and his wife, Roseane, said they did not know what the boys would ask. The White House photographer, Pete Souza, was surprised, too, as the photo’s awkward composition attests: The parents’ heads are cut off; Jacob’s arm obscures his face; and his older brother, Isaac, is blurry.

Jacob spoke first.

“I want to know if my hair is just like yours,” he told Mr. Obama, so quietly that the president asked him to speak again.

Jacob did, and Mr. Obama replied, “Why don’t you touch it and see for yourself?” He lowered his head, level with Jacob, who hesitated.

...

David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s longtime adviser, has a copy framed in his Chicago office. He said of Jacob, “Really, what he was saying is, ‘Gee, you’re just like me.’ And it doesn’t take a big leap to think that child could be thinking, ‘Maybe I could be here someday.’ This can be such a cynical business, and then there are moments like that that just remind you that it’s worth it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/us/politics/indelible-image-of-a-boys-pat-on-obamas-head-hangs-in-white-house.html

[AsburySkinsFan]

I love WH pics that show the humanity of the one holding the office, and this one is a great one.

[CrypticVillain]

Posted this on fb yesterday. I think it was a great moment. Can't believe a little child was able to think about something that deep...

[Elessar78]

I'm outraged. How can America maintain it's global superiority if our own leader is routinely bowing to powers both foreign and, now, domestic.

[The Caretaker]

He has a communist agenda tatooed to the top of his head, he bows to share it with his communist comrades, sneaky ****.

[China]

He has a communist agenda tatooed to the top of his head, he bows to share it with his communist comrades, sneaky ****.

Actually he is bowing to show them the mark of the beast on his head to let the other leaders of the world know is the antichrist.

[Dan T.]

Or he is bowing to his leader, the Boy King of Kenya.

[AsburySkinsFan]

Or he is bowing to his leader, the Boy King of Kenya.

The boy's real name is Simba.

[Gracelander]

So what was the answer? Did it feel just like his?

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

So what was the answer? Did it feel just like his?

Yes.

[SpacePenguin]

This kind of question from a child seems like something a monarch would be asked. There has been a gradual push towards treating politicians like larger than life celebrities, rather than the public servants they were meant to be.

At face value, it's a touching photograph. Just don't dig any deeper, or you won't like what you find.

For anyone who wants to invalidate my opinion as that of a right wing nutjob, let me just say this is coming from someone who voted for Obama. I truly despite partisan politics. Sarah Palin was just the bigger evil for me. I'm at least an independant nutjob ;p

Not that I don't regret the lesser evil vote I cast every election cycle. It helps that my homestate is going republican no matter how I vote.....a little.

[Duckus]

This kind of question from a child seems like something a monarch would be asked. There has been a gradual push towards treating politicians like larger than life celebrities, rather than the public servants they were meant to be.

At face value, it's a touching photograph. Just don't dig any deeper, or you won't like what you find.

Can you expand? I am lost on what the deeper ugly meaning is?

[Bang]

Can you expand? I am lost on what the deeper ugly meaning is?

The ugly meaning is he "dug deeper" and made up something to find.

~Bang

[Major Harris]

great picture. thanks for sharing.

[Bang]

This reminds me of a very vivid memory. When i was a small kid.. like 6.. I lived in a mostly white area. I "met" my first black kid in first grade, he came in the middle of the year.

I remember one of the more interesting things was someone accidentally touched his hair that first day, and before long it was being whispered that it 'felt like a blanket".

So, he spent his first day of recess on the playground with all of us curiously touching his head.

After we had all got a good feel, he got one in return,, i remember him laughing when he touched mine, because he had never seen hair so shiny. (Red head here, as a kid it looked like spun copper.)

And what do you know, we all got along. We all decided among ourselves non-verbally that even though there were small differences, those things made us enjoy each other. I don't recall as a kid ever thinking of him as 'black'. he was just a kid who had different colors. We never (as i recall) gave him a hard time and he was always welcome in recess games.

I don't remember his name, I moved shortly after to an area in which I was in the severe minority. But, I've always remembered that day and that kid, because the culture shock was lessened and I was able to get along with all my new classmates much better. I knew we weren't so different.

~Bang

[No Excuses]

Great picture. It's exciting to see or get to meet the POTUS, no matter what your party affiliation is. W. Bush came to my high school during my freshmen year and briefly stopped by and spoke in several classrooms. A friend of mine got to ask him a question and talk to him. It was neat.

[Hubbs]

Great picture and good story, Bang. I vaguely recall hearing about some psych study that was done a while back that showed that very young children didn't even understand the concept of categorizing people by their skin color. They were younger than you were in your story, but the basic point is still there. Kids don't care about this crap. It's adults who had to go and screw everything up.