Do Model Minorities Drink Wine or Beer? The Representation of Race, Elitism and American Identity

Abstract

Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign and into his presidency, President Barack Obama faced charges of elitism and questions about his patriotism and citizenship. These claims of elitism and foreignness locate Obamas identity on familiar terrain for the Asian American experience. Obamas biography, which is plotted through predominantly Asian locales such as Hawaii and Indonesia and Ivy League schools such as Columbia and Harvard, shares the elitist and exotic tropes associated with stereotypes that haunt the meaning of Asian bodies in America: Asian Americans as the model minority or as fundamentally foreign. This chapter explores how Obamas Asian American grassroots supporters used Obamas black-Asian intersection to organize around objectives that went beyond merely rallying around the candidate. Through YouTube, these supporters treated political engagement and cultural representation as a synonymous practice.