Cranky post of the day #1: "exotic Hawaii"

A few days ago, NPR's Cokie Roberts opined of Barack Obama's vacation to see his grandmother in Hawai'i, "It makes him seem a little bit more exotic than he would want to come across at this stage of the game."

This was, in my opinion, both Beltway-blinkered ("Oh my God! He's vacationing west of the Appalachian range. But there's nothing there!") and somewhat racist ("Oh my God! He's spending time in a state that has lots of tan people. How exotic!").  But I have not been able to articulate my disgust with the same eloquence that Jon Caroll does in today's SF Chron:

He's a guy visiting his grandmother, and Cokie Roberts believes that might be politically unwise. Why? Because Grandma lives in weird far-off Hawaii. It's ludicrous.

Also, you know which other group of Americans feels an affinity to Hawaii? Asians. Hawaii is a state where Asian Americans, particularly people of Japanese and Filipino descent, have really made their mark. There's ethnic pride involved, and it's neither peculiar nor inappropriate. Oh, and duh: Pacific Islanders. Yes, they really live all over the country, and they look to Hawaii as sort of the mother ship, even if they were not born there.

They don't think that Hawaii is an odd place to visit - and they vote. Dig that, Roberts.

I am so tired of the East Coast bias in national media.

[...]

Am I overreacting? Oh, probably. Am I hysterical? No, no, no! Well, maybe. But the America of the 21st century is going to be distinctly multicultural and multiracial and mixed and blended in ways we are just beginning to see, and the cabal of powerful white people who dominate the chat shows is going to seem less relevant than it already does.

-- "My Little Grass Shack," Aug 14, 08

Comments

[joshlee]

Y'know, if Obama was really serious about this race, he'd visit an actual U.S. state... oh, wait.

[Kerry]

Yeah, Hawai'i--good enough for the US to steal for sugar, good enough for thousands of US servicemen to lose their lives at Pearl Harbor, good enough for honeymooners, but not worth visiting otherwise. Not really a state.

How can it be exotic when it's also been a mainstream destination for 100 years or so? Even if it is a bit of a dream vacation?

I think it was on Jezebel yesterday where someone mentioned that Hawaii has a huge military population, and they might also look in askance at this kerfuffle.

[Libbotard]

The topic is quite curious, i must say