Barack Obama's Seventies Style (PHOTOS)

The seventies are back in a big way: shaggy hair, plaid prints and idealism have all made a comeback... furthermore, we have a president-elect who happened to come of age in the 1970s. What does that mean for us? Awesome yearbook photos. See below.

See more Obama slideshows.

Read more about Obama's style.

Read more about Barack Obama's alma mater, the Punahou School or more about Obama's years at Punahou.

• • • • • • • 1971: Obama (back row) chose simple sophistication while his 5th grade classmates at the Punahou School opted for traditional floral patterns.

Comments

[entropyisfun]

We go play hoop!

[Halz24]

The 'Jerry Maguire' kid is in the front row!

[RJII]

it'd be cool if Barry still wore his butterfly shirts. bwong-ka-cha-cha

[Tommygun2146]

LOL. Just think if Michelle showed up at the inauguration with a full-on fro, a skin-tight "Foxy Brown" jumpsuit with flared legs, Lucite high heels and big hoop earrings. Half the old, racist pubs would stroke out right there.

[DeSwiss]

So, I wonder whether President Obama will be able to make his ten-year class reunion next year?

[kkg58]

I think it is a bit more than his 10-year class reunion from high school ...

[parkerparrot]

DeSwiss might be thinking of Bobby Jindal. His ten-year reunion must be coming up soon.

[donbrown]

He graduated in1979 from Punahou, so it would be his 30th anniversary.

[jesuswazasocialist]

President Bazza..as Aussies would say.

[CostaDelBarto]

Yep true enough. Darren = Dazza, Sharon = Shazza and as advertised Barry = Bazza.

We Aussies like names we don't have to think about.

Incidentally, I think Bazza Obama is going to make a really good Prezza.

[Last-LiberalRepublicans]

INTERESTING!! I Learn Something New Today and I like it Barry = Bazza!!

[franklin opt]

For shizza!

[Pip1860]

I never quite understood why mixed parentage (White with another race) kids are considered anything but White. Isn't that saying that Whites are only Whites only when they are not unadulterated by a person of color. For instance Blacks can say the same thing about people of their race but they don't.

[Chocolate2008]

I'll answer your silly question with a silly question.

What do you get when you mix White paint with Dark Orange ?

Okay, now Dark Blue

Okay , now Dark Green

Okay , now Dark Brown

I'll give you a hint.

Not White.

LOL

[ggfree]

so you find some sort of similarity between human beings and paint?

[BarackMobile]

You don't get black either.

[HalimaBlue]

Chocolate2008 perfect comparison!

[bushgirlsgone]

.

Race as it is used today is an 18th century invention created to justify European domination of the world. It is a false concept and that's why it falls apart with questions like yours - the defintions are false to begin with.

[Turningfool]

Actually, race was used historically in Europe and North America very differently from the way it is used today. Even in the early 20th century race was used in the way we would use 'ethnicity;' for example in references to "the Irish race," etc.

[TiaL27]

...because during slavery and the segretation era. People were LEGALLY defined by their race. Under the US system if you had any tracable Black ancestery, you were considered to be black, and it didn't matter what you looked like.

People BY LAW couldn't go to the certain schools, they couldn't own land or live in certain areas if they were consider to be legally black. And if Barack Obama was an originary everyday citizen, he would be having a hard time catching a cab in New York because the world sees him as a black man, not a mixed race person. And that is why most mixed race (white/black) people indentify themselves as black because the black gene tends to be dominate and the world sees them that way but race in itself means nothing, its merely a social construct.

[Passenger57]

Because way back when, only White was "good",and anything else was "bad". If the child had a non-White parent,then they were considered to be "tainted" with this non-White "blood",and the White people didn't consider them "white" anymore.
You had to be "pure" White to be considered a White person.

[UWorlds1]

This is what's wrong with the U.S. of A...we don't know our history. Under law anyone with a drop of African (Black) blood is considered black. This is a law that is on the books. This is the consequence of slavery. The powers that be back then took great pains to prove if you had any black blood in your family line. Blacks didn't write these laws. We really should teach more black history. Read more about black history. You may be surprised.

[Stilts9]

I guess he's the black kid the back row?

[jena132]

Thank goodness he dropped "Barry"

[RealityBaseCamp]

. . . Or use "Rocky". His real name is perfectly good ("Don't let me catch you kids throwing out perfectly good names"), and so is his middle name, for that matter.

[Passenger57]

I don't like it when anyone "Americanizes" their name,for any reason. I know most do it to fit in,or back in the day to escape persecution,but 9x out of 10 their given name is so much cooler.
I knew a Chinese girl that had the coolest hyphenated "first" name,but she chose to be called something like "Janie" (I'm changing it to protect the innocent).
"Barack" is so much cooler than "Barry"!

[Bashley]

AMEN! I love that BARACK ran for president, not Barry.... I'm a Black American woman who used to look at my foreign friends' names with a sense of wonderment. I always loved hearing the meanings of them, and plan on naming my children Esperanza, Kajal, etc., not only because they sound cool but because they have meaning. It hurt my heart when we all went our separate ways for college and they came home wanting to be called "Randi" and "Kay"...

I hope many young children with ethnic names will learn that someone gave them those names because they were proud of their heritage and wanted to carry it on.

[rpr]

Come on. Barry White, Barry Manilow... "Barry" would gain him a few points among female voters :)

[Oilygarch]

Kewl guy!

I certainly hope he ages gracefully; given I've just watched GWB age about 20 years in the past 8 months!!

Just from when he started campaigning, I could almost swear he already sprouted a few gray hairs!!

[Passenger57]

Yeah,Obama's definitely going gray-but is it from being nearly 50 or from Sarah Palin?

[TiaL27]

Replying to timetorevolt's comment -

If Barack Obama were an ordinary guy walking down the street. What race would you identify him as?

I am friends with an African American who has blond hair and light-skin (her siblings all have blond hair) and BOTH of her parents are African American. Her dad is a dark-skinned Afro-American and her mom is light-skinned Afro-American with African American grandparents. So what race is she?

Can you guess the race of the individuals in the video below?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwn4hIWGUmw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L34_VQQkkxM

My point: race is a social construct.

[TiaL27]

Here is one more link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chQ0hCEfqZY

[GPMeg]

Reminds me of an experiment we did in my Biology in Society class-- there was a set of (fraternal) twins, but one was pale as snow with Norwegian-blonde hair and the other had ebony skin and curly black hair! White mom, black father, and alll sorts of ancestors! It's all in the genetic shuffle for each and every one of us.

[Adrienne Williams - Huffpost Blogger]

Again, no one is 100% anything in America. (unless you were born in Africa or parts of Asia) We need to stop focusing on color and look at the history of a person, that will tell you all you need to know.

These women are delusional if they think they are 100% black -- different shades, colors and tones change from generation to generation. Just like cats, dogs and other mammals, we are no different, it just depends on how long your line started on which side.

[swift goat pet for truth]

there might be some Native Americans who might not agree with you, including some from Hawaii.

[TiaL27]

I wasn't trying to argue that anyone is 100% of black, brown or whatever. My point was that race is a social construct.

[Judyisacutie]

Obama is the perfect argument for raising kids near their grandparents if possible. His grandfather must have been an incredible man.

[roshni]

So was his grandmother.

[HatingTheGame]

Grandmother wasn't a man, but I think we get your point.

:-)

[fnygy]

Idealism? As I remember it, the 70's were described as "The Me Decade." The 60's started with a burst of idealism, but that was quickly engulfed by Vietnam, race riots and a plethora of assassinations that nurtured cynics. Richard Nixon rang in the 70's - hardly an idealist. Watergate only deepened an already growing cynicism. Punk rock and Disco served as the soundtrack to a coke addicted selfishness that flourished in this period. I would never refer to this decade as idealistic.

[LettuceB1]

Actually, I believe it was the 80's that was "the Me Decade." Trust me, I spent my childhood in the 80's and heard it all the time. They just lived like it was the "Me Decade" in the 70's :)

Posers!

[carmina]

The 70's were indeed the "Me Decade," and I'm old enough to remember. If you watched Saturday Night Live back in the day, you might remember that the 80's were the "Al Franken Decade" -- yes, that Al Franken.

[livesimply]

I agree. The 80s were the "Me Decade." They were the children of the people whose indentity was developed in the 60s. They believed that they were not nurtured properly as children so they spoiled their children. They created an entitlement generation.

[fnygy]

"The Me Decade" was coined to describe the 70's -whether you agree with it or not. If 'coming of age' is your 20's - then Obama came of age in the 80's. If it's the teens, then he came of age in the 70's. It all depends on your idea of when one comes of age. As a member of the class of '79, I remember the 70's as more "Dazed and Confused" than anything else. But, idealism wasn't a big thing where I went to school.

[fnygy]

You've got your history a little off. While no fan of Reagan, the middle class was NOT thriving in the 70's. Inflation was in double digits and the energy crisis hit Americans HARD. Women did indeed enter the workforce in numbers unseen before that time, but largely it was to make up for the shrinking buying power of a single income - not women's liberation.

[prog]

If he were only a little older, he might have sported a big, blowout afro -- the perfectly round, basketball sized kind I remember from the early 70s.

Naw, he was too middle of the road for that. A pretty conservative looking kid, actually!

[Girlforaction]

he always remained a cutie.

[SColbert]

Yes, he a hottie.

[Darthwave]

lol. The first picture looks like central casting for the Brady Bunch Hawaii episode.

[Judyisacutie]

Yeah, it does! Hawaii must be a great place for little kids to grow up.

[swift goat pet for truth]

In some respects, definitely. But the public education system is not very good.

In Barrack's time Punahou was THE school for the elite, although Iolani grads would disagree.

[livesimply]

Or the "Mod Squad."