Obama, the first Asian American presidential candidate?

Jeff Yang ponders whether Barack Obama could become the first Asian American president, even though he’s black, just like Bill Clinton was once called the first black president, even though he’s white.

Yang, in his Asian Pop column, makes the case the Obama’s upbringing in Hawaii, a state with a large Asian and Pacific Islander population, gives him an affinity for the Asian American experience.

“A lot of aspects of the senator’s story will be recognizable to many Asian Americans,” Chris Lu, Obama’s legislative director, says in the column.

It’s an intriguing premise.

This post can also be found on Hyphen magazine’s blog.