Obama's mother and sister come to visit him in New York. They go to see a movie called Black Orpheus together. Why is this an important detail? How does Obama's understanding of his mother change after they see this film?

Obama stopped speaking to his mother much after they went to see the film Black Orpheus, a 1950s Afro-Brazilian version of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. Maya thought it was "corny" (125), but Ann, who first saw the film as a girl in Hawaii, loved it. Obama thought the film included racial stereotypes, however, and concluded that even in the case of his mother, "the emotions between the races could never be pure; even love was tarnished by the desire to find in the other some element that was missing in ourselves" (124).