In his article “Barack Obama as the Post-Racial Candidate for a Post-Racial America: Perspectives from Asian America and Hawai’i”, author Jonathan Okamura discusses the setbacks in believing in a post-racial society. After the election of Obama in 2008, many journalists commented on what his win meant for minority groups. Many believed that he was proof that America is now beyond the racial injustices of the past, and that equality is reached among the people, but that is far from correct. In essence, Obama is made out to be America’s “black friend”. While he did give hope to many POC around the country and made for good representation for young children, many neo-Conservatives used his achievement to suppress and invalidate the racial experience of many underprivileged minorities. This was similar to the model minority myth that Asian Americans are unfortunately linked to. This myth is used by the majority to pit the other groups against one another as a way to push the blame of systematic oppression on internal factors. Okamura also talks about Obama’s subtle use of color-blind rhetoric as a way to market himself to the larger audience. The problem with this is it erases a long history of systematic oppression and power dynamics. By forgetting the differences and stories of racial ethnic groups, you become compliant with hierarchical power dynamics that is strongest when it is kept hidden. My question is, how much good is Obama really do for minority groups?
REFERENCES:
Okamura, J.Y. (2011). Barack Obama as the post-racial candidate for a post-racial America: perspectives from Asian America and Hawai‘i, Patterns of Prejudice.
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