Week 9_Emerald Vang_A03

I was never into politics and the like, so I knew very little about Barack Obama. In the reading, "Barack Obama as the post-racial candidate for a post-racial America perspectives from Asian America and Hawaii," I found out the multicultural life he lived in Hawaii. I had no idea that he was born and raised there, less likely to know that he even had an Indonesian stepfather. I think it's great how much Obama was able to represent in during his term. Not only was he post-racial, being the first African American to be president, but he also advocated for Asian Americans because of his bring-up through life in Hawaii and so forth by being the first Asian American president. Knowing this information is so new and refreshing. I'm a bit shocked, but I also feel pride. Nothing ever goes on with Asians and politics. There is African American activity, but Asians never really go for presidential candidates or such. It feels like the post-racial America is moving on, yet the Asians are having a harder time representing anything because we are "model minority". I guess in a sense I think of it as we have nothing to keep fighting for because we feel we are at the top, but the Asian American community doesn't understand or want to acknowledge that we are still far below than where we should be in society. Even if they do, they aren't acting upon it like others are. I believe other minorities are fighting their way up even harder than us because they don't have benefits of "model minority," thus queue the African American presidential candidates, the "Black Lives Matter" protests, etc. I think the world is changing slowly though and that the Asian Americans can continue to fight along with everyone else. I'm glad racism is working its way out of America and that there are people like Obama who help people become post-racial and multicultural. I hope we can realize and live in true equality in the upcoming future.
Q: Do you think there is anyone out there who may be post-racial or for multicultural, but refuse to see Obama as a part of the Asian American community?

References:

• Jonathan Y. Okamura (2016). Barack Obama as the post-racial candidate for a post-racial America: perspectives from Asian American and Hawaii.
• (One Race, Human.). Retrieved from  https://mentoringinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2017/08/one-race-human-what-we-need-to-teach.html