Week 9_Christina Lukban_A02

In the reading “Barack Obama as the post-racial candidate for a post-racial America: perspective from Asian America and Hawai’i,” Okamura discusses the controversy of Obama’s presidency and his representation. This week’s topic of “Politics: Emergence of Asian American Representation” and looking at Obama is an interesting discussion. Many people claim that there are not multiple races and that we are all just one race “the human race.” But this color blindness and having this perspective neglects and invalidates many people’s histories and the struggles they’ve faced because of their race and identities. Trying to erase the idea of racism does not simply stop it from happening, but is actually a form of oppressing minorities and enforcing inequity among them. Claiming Obama’s electoral success as the “post-racial” era is not enough to stop the racism. By neglecting the problem and not discussing it, nothing is being done to stop this discrimination from happening in our society today. Although Obama being the first African-American to be president was life-changing, claiming it to be “post-racial” just allows people to turn a blind eye to racism, especially when Obama failed to bring race into his platform during elections. “Obama’s post-racial idealism told whites the one thing they most wanted to hear: America had essentially contained the evil of racism to the point at which it was no longer a serious barrier to black advancement” (Okamura 139). But in fact, racism is STILL very much a prominent part of our society today but takes forms in underlying prejudices in the government such as the prison system, police brutality, gentrification, injustices in our education system, etc.

Another topic Okamura mentions is Obama representing himself as the "first Asian American president." By him claiming this, he allows people to put on this model minority stereotype onto him and, like post-racialism, assumes the the United States is free of racism and discrimination since "a racial minority like Asian Americans would not otherwise have been able to achieve the educational and occupational successes they have had" (Okamura 143). Since he was able to have "Asian American cultural values" such as hardwork, devotion to education, and determination, this is what brought him to his success. Having this mindset brought people to think that "If this minority can do it, so can everyone else" but in reality he only claims this because of conveniency and wanting to win the Asian American community over as he tries to seem as "one of us" but not really intending to support the community he identifies with.

Question: Will America ever really reach this so-called “post-racial” era?

References:

Chang, Heidi. “ Barack Obama's Hawaii Roots: How Hawaii Helped Shape America's 44th President.” PRX,
6 Jan. 2009, beta.prx.org/stories/31976.

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