As I read a paragraph in a New York Times article, a light turned on. It may be linked to Senator Obama's multiracial background. According to the article...
Mr. Obama became a Christian after hearing a 1988 sermon of Mr. Wright’s called “The Audacity to Hope.” Joining Mr. Wright’s church helped Mr. Obama, with his disparate racial and geographic background, embrace not only the African-American community but also Africa, his friends and family say.
So previous to his conversion to Christianity and joining of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Barrack Obama apparently did not feel connected with the African-American community. I definitely connect with that feeling of disconnect.
For a good portion of my life, I have felt disconnected from certain (arguably superficial) societal groupings. When I am in America with first- or second-generation immigrants from Japan, I feel that I am on the perimeter of group membership. When I am with White Americans, I often feel the same. I am what you might call multiracial (or happa). Questions of racial/ethnic background on standardized exams or applications also include the phrase, "Choose only one." This prompts me to think, "Which one should I choose today?" People have been known to ask, "So what are you?" Lately, people are more likely to get a very uncomfortable look on their faces and ask something like, "So where are your parents from?" or "What's your ethnicity?" Is it a desire to categorize me that motivates these questions? My identity is influenced by so many factors, these questions seem trivial to me -- I do not completely identify with the White American community or Japanese American community. I do, however, think I identify with the nebulous multiracial/multiethnic American community.
Which brings me back to Barrack Obama. He seems similar in my multiracial mind to Tiger Woods, famed for identifying his race as Cablinasian (a portmanteau term he coined from Caucasian, Black, American-Indian, and Asian). It reminds me of what I heard a graduate student, whose father was an White American serviceman and mother was Korean, at USU say about his childhood. Before he was adopted in the US, kids would chase him and beat him up in Korea because he was too white. Then after his adoption, kids in the US would chase him and beat him up because he was too yellow. Prejudice takes on many forms and is all relative. Barrack Obama is in a unique position as a multiracial American. Does that make him a better candidate? I don't know yet, but I do know this. I connect with some of the frustration he probably feels as the media and American society try to categorize him.
9 comments:
I was puzzled and amused in Ukraine when on several different occasions, I was asked about my ethnicity, and the asker had trouble accepting "American" as an answer. No, I don't mean I'm Algonquin-- I'm a white boy. No, I'm not English. Not Danish either. I'm American.
Some people just can't handle that, though.
I've tried that too. And it's definitely more true as far as my internal self-description goes, but no one that asks the question seems to be able to accept that answer. ::shrug::
Thought Im not a Hillary fan, I couldnt help but think of her as I read this.
Much of this post could have HILLARY replaced for the word Barrack, and with some minor changes for congruity, make the point about women and their quest for equality in this country.
Chelsea, apparently, I need you to expound on that a bit. Are you saying that Obama felt disconnected from the African American community like H. Clinton felt disconnected from the female community or the White community or the greater American community? Please continue. =)
k, grant - Ill expound, though this will be quick, I have a time-bomb baby in my arms and Im typing one-handed. :)
Though I cant speak for Hillarys "feelings," the fact is that she is in a mans world. She is doing what has traditionally and historically been done by men. She doesnt "stay home baking cookies," yet tries to relate to the millions of women who do (likely for political reasons, though perhaps somewhere in her complicated psyche she covets their domestic life).
When I worked at United Way as the Business Relations Manager, I had to attend conferences and seminars several times a month. Most had a male-female ratio of less than 3:1. I went through somewhat of an identity crisis at these events, and in my life in general. Was I a businesswoman? No, I worked for a nonprofit. And if I was... it wouldnt have worked out well. Whether people admit it or not, men prefer to do business with men. To be fair, women likewise. But I was still finishing college work - was I a college student/new grad? Inferiority plagued me due to my inexperience outside of the academia safety net. Having recently left the BYU track team, I dabbled with professional racing. But I had much more of a life than just training, which really isnt allowed for pro runners. Its quite a cultish sub-culture. Then I got pregnant. Suddenly I was simply a countdown. "How long do you have left?" Translation: how much time do we have with you being useful to us? Or better yet, "are you going back to work after you have your baby?" translation: are you going to waste your degree and debase yourself to the life of a SAHM?
I would not be surprised if Hillary, and scads of other women, have gone through the same emotions and identity crisis. Wouldnt you agree this is similar to the feelings of a multiracial individual?
I wonder if it is in societys nature or nurture to desire to categorize/compartmentalize all people around them.
thanks for taking some of your motherly time to quite single-handedly answer my questions. An awesome complement and intriguing tangent from my post =)
this whole tendency to pigeon-hole causes problems too often. Chieko Okasaki commented on it in the second chapter of her new book. Hmm... I'll have to reference it later.
just reread chelsea's comment -- loved it even more. thanks again! very similar; parallels and overlaps all too much. i appreciate the nurture and/or nature question/prompt at the end.
i would also add this identities are external, internal, and full of all kinds of nuances. does the identity that becomes true for us as individuals depend more on nature, nurture or our inner determination to negotiate between them and external forces? how about the identities we have of (or push on) others?
sometimes being able to ask questions of others with the intent to listen (actively/sincerely/sensitively/etc) is helpful in my opinion.
I hope you don't mind me reading your blog :)
Identity identity, whose got your identity? Sheri Dew mentioned this classic Candid Camera moment in a fireside I attended in March.
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/710170/
Who do we listen to?
I have some interesting work related stories, but I won't divulge here. Grant, thanks for posting- this has been an wonderfully insightful read.
=) AWEsome vid!!! lol that's so great. now i want to read Sis. Dew's talk!
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