I'm back from Hawaii, after attending the annual AAAS conference.  More on the awesome nerdy/wonky experience soon, but I have to say something about all these pieces that are popping up about President Obama being the first Asian American President.  Even during the AAAS conference, Professor Michael Omi (Berkeley, Ethnic Studies) shared that he and Professor Taeku Lee (Berkeley, Political Science) are also drafting their own take on how President Obama is the first Asian American President. All of these commentaries are knock-offs of what the great Toni Morrison did in the New Yorker in 1998.  In a now famous commentary, Ms. Morrison stated,

Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas. And when virtually all the African-American Clinton appointees began, one by one, to disappear, when the President’s body, his privacy, his unpoliced sexuality became the focus of the persecution, when he was metaphorically seized and body-searched, who could gainsay these black men who knew whereof they spoke? The message was clear: “No matter how smart you are, how hard you work, how much coin you earn for us, we will put you in your place or put you out of the place you have somehow, albeit with our permission, achieved. You will be fired from your job, sent away in disgrace, and—who knows?—maybe sentenced and jailed to boot. In short, unless you do as we say (i.e., assimilate at once), your expletives belong to us.”

It's pretty clear that after the mainstream media implied that Obama had and "Asian problem," folks really want to show Asian love for the President! I've come across two commentaries that claim President Obama is the first Asian American president in the last month (Barack Obama: Our first Asian American President; Obama the first Asian American President?).  Of course, Jeff Yang was the first to make such a claim back in July 2008, asking, "Could Obama be the first Asian American president?"  It's interesting to me that all of these writers have been men. Well, here's my take as an Asian American woman. 

First, I found the Asians in America commentary, though a humorous tongue-in-cheek piece, to be a bit problematic.  The piece almost reads like a list of Asian American stereotypes. The point I found most frustrating was the final point that President Obama is "white inside" like so many other Asian American twinkies, bananas, and coconuts.  Hello? Not all Asian Americans are self-haters who completely lack a political identity and sense of self as a racialized being.  If Obama was really an "oreo," there would be no way he could be so adept at maneuvering the potential land mines that the media sets for him everyday on issues of race.  Whether President Obama truly uses his position to oppose systemic maintenance of white dominance and racial inequalities in society... that's another question entirely. What is whiteness?  What does it mean to be "white on the inside?" For me it means that you have no critique of racial inequalities and you act to perpetuate and reproduce inequalites against people of color, including and especially against Asian Americans as a self-hater.

The commentary by Tandon is a lot more serious.  Like Yang's piece, Tandon points to rather basic facts. He was born and raised in Hawaii, the only Asian majority state in the U.S. He spent part of his life in Asia (Indonesia), and he has Asian American family.  His memoir, Dreams from my Father, focuses significantly on his search for identity.  He has appointed a big number of Asian Americans to his administration.  On policy issues, he has been supportive of Asian American issues.  He is expected to tackle immigration reform soon.  He supported WWII Filipino Veterans. Helen Zia was quoted saying that Obama "recognizes what it means to be bilingual."  He's started to deal with Asian nations in a much more respectful manner than past administrations.  His election has even been encouraging for Asian Americans to pursue careers in politics.

OK, so on the fun fact tip, Mrs. Obama is known to support fashion designers of color, especially Jason Wu. 

But, on the serious tip... really, all of you men (yes, I'm assuming Shaun Tandon is a guy) have missed a huge point in how President Obama is the first Asian American President. He is the ULTIMATE Model Minority! His election is being used by conservatives all over the place to show how "racism is dead." Even well-intentioned White liberals have said some craziness about how his election will mean the end of racism in the U.S. This is exactly what I heard President Carter say in Denver at the DNC last year. - "The election of Barack Obama will mean the end of racism."  Seriously, is anyone else tired of hearing about how we are now living in a post-race era? BLAH! Really, McWhorter? BLAH! Then why are there still such inequalities in racial profiling and criminalization/incarceration, education, housing, employment, heath care access, etc?  And, yes... this all continues to exist for Asian Americans too!  And for Pacific Islanders... definitely some serious racial inequalities. Instead of citing a ton of reports (for some reports and briefs, check out the UC AAPI Policy MRP), I'll just point to the massive increase of membership in White Supremacy Terrorist organizations and activities.

So, I won't say President Obama is Asian American because he's got Asian family, but... I will say - ummm, really? No one else thought to talk about how his election is totally blending in perfectly into color-blind ideology and master narratives of pulling yourself up by the bootstrap, which ultimately maintains white dominance in society? (See: Bonilla-Silva, 2006; Kim, 1999). 

I'm a cynical person, and I doubt I'll ever see an Asian American that I like (no thank you, Bobby Jindal!!!) in the White House. Yea... Bobby, you are a coconut! Stop being used, man! Proof Jindal's a GOP tool: The GOP is able to turn a Rhodes Scholar into a bumbling fool in the style of Kenneth the Page!  So, I'm more than happy to claim Barack Obama as the first Asian American president, but let's not forget about this very important point in how his story mirrors the Asian American experience.  What can we all learn from this?