Like so many in Hawai‘i, Senator Barack Obama is hapa. But that’s not the reason writer Jeff Yang thinks he could be the first Asian American to be President. Like Toni Morrison anointed Bill Clinton the nation’s first Black President on the basis of his early life circumstances and experiences, Yang argues that growing up in Hawai‘i (and Indonesia) gives Senator Obama a uniquely Asian American perspective:
Evidence for Obama’s affinity with the Asian American experience runs true even as one delves deeper into his history. “A lot of aspects of the senator’s story will be recognizable to many Asian Americans,” says Lu, a Harvard Law School classmate of the senator’s who joined the team in 2005. “He talks about feeling like somewhat of an outsider; about coming to terms with his self-identity; about figuring out how to reconcile the values from his unique heritage with those of larger U.S. society. These are tensions and conflicts that play out in the lives of all children of immigrants.”
Read Jeff’s full column at SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website).
Tagged: Asian American, Barack Obama, identity