We likee Hirally! She best quality!

Isn't it obvious that the media are simply grasping for somethng to say to make sense of a political season unlike any other? They slice & dice data and don't really know what they're talking about. They lump "Asians" together because most seem to demostrate they know little or nothing about how vast and diverse "Asia" really is. How can they when most haven't traveled -- or more importantly lived & worked -- outside the US.

It's actually a breath of fresh air we have one candidate who has lived outside the US. It may have been when he was younger, but it counts significantly in my book and -- I believe -- will matter a great deal in dealing with other world leaders. www.getaheadbygoingabroad.com

The text of your post is interesting in this topsy-turvy politcal climate, but your headline is what really caught my eye - I has to read it twice to understand what you were trying to say. I'm not asian or even asian-american, but I thought it was kinda offensive!?! Is it OK to use ethnic language if you are that ethnicity, like when black rappers refer to themselves with ethnic slurs? If that headline was posted on a blog by a caucasian woman, would you have been insulted?

Prklypear: The title, I believe, was satirical. Read the post again and consider the title in a new light.

And I'm not saying this goes for all Asians, but the racism charge is definitely true for a lot of the first-generation Asian immigrants that I know.

Thanks Susan. Of course I understand that the title is satirical. Maybe I'm just being hypersensitive, given the overly PC climate we live in today :)

Along the same lines as Susan's comment, I was wondering how many of these Asian Americans were immigrants and how many were born here of Asian heritage. Because it makes me uncomfortable to say this, but most immigrants that I've encountered from any area of the world make no pretenses about their prejudices against African Americans.

For a moment there I thought I was on Engrish.com.

I'd like to think it has more to do with class and thus conservatism, but the #s were pretty astonishing to me, particularly in CA. Like Latino-Americans (another seemingly monolithic category), I think recent immigrants (from most of the world), like working class whites, have yet to be sold on Obama. He's killing her in the youth and elite votes, among the educated and blacks. But 70 or 80%--no question she's even winning over educated Asian Americans. But the line "Japanese don't like change" struck a chord. I know, interviewing one Japanese-American to represent all of them plus their homeland bros/siss. But hasn't the LDP been running the show over there virtually nonstop since WWII? Superdelegates, states like Oregon not voting until May, the year 2000 anyone--I'm not saying America's version of democracy is not a myth but... Christ, even the PRI in Mexico finally lost. I think Obama can effectively reach out to all minorities, not privileging only a selected group, by emphasizing his personal history; he has to better reach out to these groups, in particular Latinos in TX. He'll need all the help he can get in Nov.

Hi Lisa, I thought your post was spot on. Consider this, much in the news media is also talking about how Hispanics are voting predominately for Hillary because she's white. It's outrageous, because just as you point out, they're referring to a large ethnicity, that actually is made up of every race out there.

I don't know if you would agree, but the MSM just has a very difficult time interpreting comments like those heard during that interview. I didn't hear that they were racist. I had traditionalism. The fact is, Asian and Hispanic cultures value tradition. The idea of voting over and over for a single party, or for a members of the same family, religion, etc, really affects many immigrant and immigrant descended individuals. Being 1st generation Hispanic, born here, I can't help notice the affect of my parents perspectives on my own, its only been later on in my life when I was really able to move away from those viewpoints.

Unfortunately the MSM has a hard time grasping the concept, for Americans, generational gap in culture, ideology, etc, is so common, it's assumed that many ethnicities experience the same thing. In fact, for many ethnicities, what our grandparents and parents think is significantly valued and affects later generations. Again, my own two cents, but I think your overall point is justified.

We Rikee Hiraree! She best quarity!

While Anderson Cooper could never be mistaken for being an authority on race relations or somebody that adds to a productive national discourse, he may have, by oversimplifying things, be onto something here.

Personally, after reading the post and the resulting comments, I find the skepticism and the efforts to dig below the media noise refreshing.

We don't do that enough.

This is something that I have been wondering about since the race kicked off in earnest. In a race this tight, both candidates will need all the ethnicities they can get. How will Chinese voters react to Obama? Lisa, to your point, I can't really speak for the Japanese.

If my family is any indication, Chinese voters will overwhelmingly vote Hillary and its not because of Hillary's immigration policy or her strong ties with the Chinese community. It's because of race.

Chinese people can be some of the most racist people on Earth. That's neither a condemnation nor meant to be a universal truth, but more what I've experienced in my life. To my family, black skin is inseparable from all the negative stereotypes.

Yes. I understand the flaws in what I am saying. My family and other chinese people that I've met in my short existence on this planet don't even come close to being a representative sample of Chinese people on the whole. And, yes, education can play a big role in combatting negative stereotypes. The arguments against what I am saying are many, but the simple truth of the matter is this: if my family, a very normal, a very typical chinese immigrant family, can feel this way about an African-American candidate, what about all the other normal, chinese immigrant families out there?

That being said. I really do hope We Can.

Pretty much, yea. My parents are Chinese immigrants too, and they've been resisting Obama because he's black.

Me and my mostly Asian group of friends all support Obama though, so I was a bit surprised to see her do so well even across the age board.

I know this is only anectdotal evidence, but the Japanese people I know here (in Tokyo) seem rather positive about Obama. Of course, they don't have a vote. My wife supports Hillary, but that's because of her gender, not race.

Kudos to Mrs. Cullen for an insightful article.

I found this excerpt especially worthwhile:

"The thing is, we Americans have a habit of identifying people by color. I'm not saying it's good or sensitive. But you do it, too. You lumped us—a rainbow of Americans in varying shades of yellow from dozens of countries in the continent known as Asia—into one vote. When the young lady ID-ed Clinton as "the white lady," she wasn't saying she was voting for her because of those characteristics. To us, Clinton is the white lady. McCain is the white man. Obama is the black or multiracial man.

I'm not saying race doesn't play into Asian-Americans' choice at the voting booth. But to imply the whole swath of us are not voting for Obama because he's black is just a little much. Don't you think?"

My understanding of the issue is that, though the numbers don't lie, it's precarious at best, and foolish at worst, to lump Asian-Americans together as one sweeping, racist mob that likes white, female politicians over black or multi-racial candidates. I'd like to offer some of my own personal insight, if I may.

My parents, who are Chinese first-generation immigrants, expressed an interest in voting for Hillary all the way back in 2000, before race was even an issue. When asked for their rationale for liking Hillary, they cited her professional record (competent, recently got elected to the New York Senate in the same year, showed some independent though on the healthcare system), not her skin color or sex.

Being very rooted in pragmatism, I would venture to say that the Chinese-American immigrant demographic (to be more specific, the voting bloc of Chinese nationals that emigrated to the United States after the reforms of October 1978 and subsequently nationalized to become American citizens), places large emphasis on pragmatic experience. It also doesn't hurt that Mrs. Clinton is married to a former president who does have 8-years of experience in the Oval Office. At least for my parents, they are voting for Mrs. Clinton because she represents experience and scalable change. I would venture to say that risk-aversion factors more into my parent's decision more than racism or other oversimplification.

As an additional note, it would behove the political analysts scrutinizing the Asian-American vote to note that Mr. Clinton had a relatively good relationship with China during and after his time in office, something that matters at least to the aforementioned Chinese-American bloc of voters. I have to point out that Mr. Clinton sounded much more rational in his analysis of Sino-American relations in this Wired article (http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2001/05/43705)
than the incumbent president at the time. Before 9/11 hit, I was seriously concerned that , under the Bush administration, the next conflict would lead to World War IV, Greater China vs. the United States (I consider the Cold War to qualify as WWIII).

To conclude, I'd like to add a note to the poster "Prklypear", if he/she is still reading this thread. I believe that Mrs. Cullen's witty title was possibly an oblique reference to Mrs. Amy Tan's work, the "Joy Luck Club", where one matriarch refers to her daughter in a crab analogy. Her daughter, like the delicious hairy crabs they were serving, was "best quality" in heart and spirit. If I misinterpreted that as an allusion, then I would venture a guess that the title is a jab at some people's truly racist imitations of "pidgin English" used by Asian-Americans.

Again, thanks to Mrs. Cullen for an insightful read, as always. I've been hooked on her journalistic pieces since I read "It's Inconvenient Being Green". I am going to recommend this article to many of my friends. At worst, it would prompt discussion in one of many issues that warrants dialogue.

-TheTimelyRain

I want to ask Lisa Cullen if she writes her own headlines or if time.com does it for her. I saw this headline and was immediately shocked. I do not care if you are Asian or not. The headline was EXTREMELY racist, offensive, and classless, and did not do the article any justice. Why does an article/blog that asks why people think Asians do not want to vote for Obama because he is black use a headline that is equally offensive to the Asian race?