The article "Barack Obama as the post-racial candidate for a post-racial America: perspectives from Asian America and Hawai'i," by Jonathan Y. Okamura, was a very surprising article to me. I was very shocked with how readily Obama claimed his "Asian American" status despite even mentioning himself, in his book, that he had very little ties to Hawai'i let alone an Asian American identity. I realize he is probably the most progressive president that Asian Americans have had since he appointed several Asian Americans to the Executive branch, but I realized that things would not be acceptable the other way around. If an Asian American adopted a black identity, despite only marginally growing up with an African American community, there would be significant backlash. One such figure is the actress, Awkwafina, who has gotten a lot of hate for adopting a "blaccent" that she states she grew up with. I realize there is no clear distinction of when cultural appropriation is considered "okay," but would it have been okay for Obama to claim an Asian American identity even if he had more significant ties to Hawai'i? I think people need to be held more accountable to respecting the origins of other cultures, especially when they appropriate other cultures.
Q: In what ways can we respect the origin of other cultures?
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.
(2018, Aug 24) Awkwafina as Peik Lin in
Crazy Rich Asians. Retrieved from https://www.vulture.com/2018/08/awkwafina-blaccent-cultural-appropriation.html
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