Learn English – Meaning of the phrase “the wrong side of history”

That which is make-believe is pretended, imaginary or fanciful. It is sometimes used to suggest that something is better than it really is, which is the way your friend seems to have used it in his post.

I'm not certain of this, but it seems to me that he is saying the president has a better understanding of what Trayvon Martin’s life was like than he is saying. In other words, his statement about the community’s collective memory is stronger and more thoroughly shared by the community than his words imply, and that President Obama has experienced more discrimination in his own life than he will discuss. He is “closer to” King experience and King’s knowledge than he appears.

The journalist implies that readers do not know how much experience President Obama has had of discrimination and prejudice, and that he is unwilling to speak more frankly than that from the Oval Office perspective. “Objects are closer than they appear,” means, though he appears far (in the White House) from the slum experience of life because of his elected office, but he nonetheless knows what he is talking about from personal experience. President Obama did not use the word “we” in his statement, but he could have.

I think that is correct, because, even if he did not have a black father around to pass on his experiences, He grew up in his skin, and had to have his own negative experiences throughout the years, and Obama spent three years in the South Side of Chicago as a community organizer, offering counselling and assisting people's access to services and education. So he experienced all that goes on, and also had the opportunity to hear of it from many others. He had to try to overcome the barriers in order to help people.