Week 9 - Nuong Vo - A04

     Although it is nice to think that we can live in a period where race is no longer a factor in our decision making, we are not at that time. Is it really possible to achieve a "post-racial" time period when the idea of race exists? I think we have a really long way to go before declaring our time as a "post-racial" point. Especially when Obama was rerunning for the presidency, there was a lot of racist remarks against him (which was to be expected). Racism is still rooted deeply in our history, which is why it's a big deal if someone that isn't a white male becomes president. Obama's presidency isn't the end of racism, but a new beginning to different possibilities.
       It was interesting to read about "Obama as an honorary local" section because you can really see how media and island supporters influenced Obama's identity as a local. The article says locals are usually used for Asian American, which is interesting since Obama is obviously not Asian or Asian American. It seems like his identity is easily created for him since his upbringing was in Hawai. It's funny because the person writing this article sounds kind of salty at some points saying Obama engaged in superficial activities to make himself seem more "local" in Hawai. However, it's definitely possible Obama is just strategically playing along with this identity that was created for him. This does show how strongly once racial identity plays a part in the presidential campaign.

Citation:
Jonathan Y. Okamura (2011) Barack Obama as the post-racial candidate for a post-racial America: perspectives from Asian America and Hawai‘i, Patterns of Prejudice, 45:1-2, 133-153, DOI: 10.1080/0031322X.2011.563159
Image:
Jaffe, Greg and Juliet Eilperin. 2015. “Hawaii Can't Seem to Name Anything after Native Son Obama.” Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 2, 2019 (https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-hawaii-obama-20151226-story.html).