American Democracy, Racial Identity & the Internet

Fall 2008 Speaker Series

International Cultural Studies Certificate Program

American Democracy, Racial Identity and the Internet: Obama and the Millennial Generation.

Dr. Ruth Y. Hsu
University of Hawai'i Manoa English Department

An analysis of the Obama campaign and the reactions to that campaign from various segments of the nation’s political structure offers opportunities to assess the status of American hegemony currently dominated by a neoliberal military-corporate matrix. In particular, Barack Obama’s candidacy is assumed by many people, whatever their political convictions, to be a watershed moment in America, with the locus of interest being the candidate’s racial identity, an identity constructed so as de-contextualize and so de-individualize the candidate and that replaces specific matters of education, family, and place with existing American cultural figurations of the race-d other.

Interestingly, this process of de-contextualization is occurring across the American political spectrum, among so-called conservative Republicans as well as their counterparts at the other end of the political landscape.

This process of de-contextualization can be seen in reportage from both corporate and new media; from narratives about the candidates from major cultural and political figures, and the way that many voters appear to decode both campaigns, but especially Obama’s.

The difficulty that we appear to have with “the race” issue here also offers opportunities to move beyond a dualistic paradigm.

Date: Wednesday, October 29th
Time: 12 pm – 1:20pm
Place: Burns Hall Room 2118

Sponsored by:
The UHM/EWC International Cultural Studies Program
Telephone: 808-944-7593
Fax: 808-944-7070
Office: Burns Hall #2069
Email:culture@hawaii.edu
Website: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~culture

Event Sponsor
International Cultural Studies, Manoa Campus

More Information
Program Manager: Patty Harris, 944-7593, culture@hawaii.edu, http://www2.hawaii.edu/~culture/

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