General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I am Latina but pass as White [View all]BumRushDaShow
(128,979 posts)Yes - Barack Obama represents powerful symbolism and irony (versus actual familial history) of what transpired here in the U.S. leading up to his election. The son of European-descended mother and African father. But the other symbolism of his family that is often left out of the equation when discussing his upbringing, is his step-father, who was Indonesian (i.e., "yellow" or Asian), and his half-sister is part Indonesian. And given he spent some years of his childhood in Indonesia, he was exposed to that 3rd "race" and is very cognizant of the Asian cultures living in Indonesia and the place where he was born and raised - Hawai'i.
But in the U.S., it doesn't matter where he came from, he's still considered a "n*gger" because of what he looks like.