Week 9_Van Nguyen_A04

I find it is irony how Obama is defining his identity, ‘honorary’ White even though he is half white, ‘honorary’ Asian American even though the only relationship is having an Indonesian step-father, not really considered as African American yet his father is from Kenya, too ironical in this situation. Yet that is what Obama, or at least his campaign camp is aiming at, appeal to all possible groups and obtain as many votes as possible.

According to the reading, it is measured that “Asian American individuals and communities with the highest level of acculturation, achievement, and wealth increasingly find themselves functioning as white.” This appears to me to have two hidden meanings:

1.     Being wealthy, having high level of education, and achievement is meant for White,

2.     And as Asian American able to achieve what was meant for white(?) then they are categorized as acting as white.

Then I start questioning why, they measured by professional integration, residential patterns, and intermarriage rates, and just based on these three measurements, can one conclude that Asian Americans acting as White? This means more that they have more chances open up to them through education, leads to professional integration, the certain community and groups they involve in due to their jobs and this can partially decides their partner and eventually the place they resides. The success of an ethnic individuals being compared to the other and stating they are acting as another ethnic rather than their own? This is overboard. Also, what is the standard of acting as another race? How can that be defined as being White and why do those can only be achieved by White? Isn’t this another aspect of racism, discriminating people against their hard-worked success? How could this be?

This issue goes in line with the statement that Americans accept successful African Americans in entertainment and pro-sport industry, yet if Blacks achieve success in another field, “they are ‘subsequently stripped of color’.” This sounds so familiar that it just a more specific success example of another race other than white, just as Asian Americans have achievement and success and “they are acting as white” statement. This reminds me of Kevin Hart once said in a stand-up performance, that in the neighborhood he lives in, there is a white dentist, where he is a Hollywood star, this shows the standard living average between white and black individuals.

In my opinion, the United States is not in post-racialism as many think, nor color-blindness, rather racism in the US has transform into a new form, more into culturalism yet culture is somewhat define race, and it just hides behind another cover of racism. I agree that more and more people are accepting the diversity of the US population, yet the US has not goes through to the post-racialism period.

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