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Beyond the Candidate: Obama, YouTube, and (My) Asian-ness Konrad Ng Introduction In August 2008, NPR and ABC political analyst Cokie Roberts criticized then–Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, for choosing to vacation in Hawaii, the state of his birth and where his late grandmother and other relatives lived. Roberts argued that Obama should have chosen to vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, stating, “I know Hawaii is a state, but it has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place.”1 The implication, as New York Times editorial writer Lawrence Downes noted, was that “Hawaii is elitist while South Carolina is not, and that Mr. Obama was foolishly squandering votes by walking on the wrong beach in the wrong state.”2 Indeed, Roberts’s comments suggest that Hawaii, a state that is predominantly Asian, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian in history, culture, and population, is dissonant with mainstream America and that a trip to Hawaii would be a mistake for the first African-American Democratic presidential nominee. I find this episode interesting for its interarticulation of elitism, exoticism, race, and the meaning of American-ness. Throughout the campaign and even into his presidency, Obama faced charges of elitism3 1 “Cokie Roberts on Obama’s Vacation: ‘I Know His Grandmother Lives in Hawaii and I Know Hawaii Is a State,’ But It Looks ‘Foreign, Exotic,’” Media Matters for America, August 10, 2008, http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200808100001 (accessed August 10, 2008) and “Roberts Again Criticizes Obama for ‘Exotic’ Trip Home to Hawaii,” Media Matters for America, August 11, 2008, http://mediamatters.org/research/200808110177 (accessed August 11, 2008). 2 Lawrence Downes, “A Few Words about Hawaii, U.S.A.,” New York Times, August 13, 2008, http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/a-few-words-about-hawaii-usa (accessed August 13, 2008). 3 See “Matthews: Does Obama ‘Connect Connect with Regular People’ or just African-Americans and College Grads?,” Media Matters for America, April 2, 2008, http://mediamatters.org/ research/200804020001 (accessed April 2, 2008) and “Hardball? Matthews Asked McCain: ‘[W]e’veHadEnoughSoftball,Senator.…IsBarackObamaanElitist?’”MediaMattersforAmerica, April 15, 2008, http://mediamatters.org/research/200804150008 (accessed April 15, 2008). 89 The Obama Effect and questions about his citizenship. Pundits and political opponents alike questioned his ability to connect with everyday Americans. Obama was called the choice of “wine drinkers,” a vernacular description for educated and affluent voters that is used in opposition to “beer drinkers,” workingclass , less-educated, and less-affluent voters.4 The claims that Obama was elitist and foreign locate Obama’s subjectivity on familiar ground for the meaning of Asian America and the racialization of Asian bodies. Obama’s biography, which includes relatives of Asian descent and is plotted through predominantly Asian locales such as Hawaii and Indonesia, and Ivy League schools such as Columbia and Harvard, resonates with the stereotype that haunts the meaning of Asian bodies in America: the myth of the model minority. Far from being a benign stereotype, the racialization of Asian bodies as the model minority holds power over Asian lives, particularly in how the meaning of Asian bodies has been used as a foil for American identity. One can point to the critical work of Lisa Lowe,5 David Palumbo-Liu,6 Robert Lee,7 or Michael Omi8 to demonstrate how the meaning of Asian America has been a powerful organizing principle to arrange the economic, ideological, domestic, and foreign affairs of the nation-state. Lowe contends that the meaning of American citizenship has been defined over [and] against the Asian immigrant, legally, economically, and culturally. These definitions have cast Asian immigrants both as persons and populations to be integrated into In May 2009, political commentators Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Mark Steyn criticized PresidentObamaforbeinganelitistbecauseheorderedaburgerwith“spicymustard”or“Dijonmustard .” Please see “Dijon Derangement Syndrome: Conservative Media Attack Obama for Burger Order,” Media Matters for America, May 7, 2009, http://mediamatters.org/research/200905070031 (accessed May 7, 2009). 4 See “Chicago Tribune Repeated Obama-Arugula Falsehood, Used Anecdotes to Cast Obama as ‘Wine-Track,’” Media Matters for America, September 24, 2007, http://mediamatters.org/ research/200709240012 (accessed September 24, 2007) and Gail Collins, “Pinochle Politics,” New York Times, April 10, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/opinion/10collins.html (accessed April 10, 2008). 5 Lisa Lowe, Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996). 6 David Palumbo-Liu, Asian/American: Historical Crossings of a Racial Frontier...

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