You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
During the last 8 years in American history, faith in the American narrative of equality has been shaken.1 We continue to wrestle with an epidemic of violence against innocent people, and this violence is regularly against racial minorities. Preceding this time, America elected her first Black president, Barack Obama, and this brought forth an ethos of hopefulness in the ongoing struggle toward freedom for all. Against these shifting currents, Obama’s legacy was symbolized by the unveiling of his presidential portraits. The positive reception across the country to the National Portrait Gallery’s Obama Presidential Portraits has been unprecedented. In this paper, I will explore this recent cultural event as a springboard to frame an exploration of the history of “collective silence” around racism in psychoanalysis.