Week 9_Zijing Wu_A04

After reading the article "Barack Obama as the post-racial candidate fora post-racial America: perspectives from Asian America and Hawai‘i" by Jonathan Y. Okamura. I have something to say about the "post-racial" political era. Since 2008 when Obama got elected as the first African American president of the United States,  journalists began to label him as the "post-racial candidate". People think his electoral success shows that America has entered a post-racial and color-blind society. This is completely a false claim to me. Obama's presidency certainly is a good thing for African Americans, for Hawaiian locals, and for all the other minority groups in this country. This was definitely a step closer towards a true Utopian post-racial society, however, we are not quite there yet. How can there possibly be a post-racial society when the term "race" still exists. From earlier lectures, I learned that "race" was socially engineered by the people in power. The fact that Obama will always be known as the first African American president shows that the general public are still categorizing people based on their "race". Yes, Obama himself avoids discussions of racial issues during his presidency campaign, but that is because he didn't need to. Most of his supporters are minorities and he strategically used his multiculturalism background to his advantage. He knows his audience so he didn't have to say anything. Him running president is the best racial issue to discuss.
In conclusion, Obama may be "the post-racial" candidate, but we are still far from achieving a color-blind society.

Question: What Obama's presidency actually means to all the minority groups.



Reference:

Mccaskill, Nolan D., et al. “Obama: I Could Have Won a Third Term.” POLITICO, POLITICO, 26 Dec. 2016, www.politico.com/story/2016/12/barack-obama-axelrod-third-term-hope-change-232969.

Okamura, Jonathan Y. Barack Obama as the post-racial candidate for a post-racial America: 

           perspectives from Asian America and Hawai'i. Routledge. 2016.