Barack

"I had no idea who my own self was. Unwilling to risk exposure, I would quickly retreat to safer ground." I think this is a great window into Barack at the time he is referring to himself in this quote but also who he is today. Pride is something that every man deals with and Barack is no exception. He is admitting to us that at this point in his life he was pretty arrogant and prideful. But in admitting that to us in the book Barack is revealing to us that he has largely overcome his pride and humbled himself in many different veins of the book in telling us things such as this conversation with Ray. "Maybe we should give the bad-assed nigger pose a rest"(Barack), to which Ray responds confused, 'What pose?" After I read this I kind of had a "hell yeah" moment because Barack is a success story for the people who don't know themselves. He was caught up in "being black" and Ray (who "is black") helped Barack make the next step to being himself by calling him out. I think it would be safe to say most college and high school kids (and some adults) don't know who they are because they're so caught up in fitting in or going with the flow and they need a Ray to call them out or push them out on the edge.