Obama`s View of Asians

With the President visiting his old home, Indonesia, it`s worth noting that one of the funnier themes in Dreams from My Father, (granted, I`m using “funny” pretty relativistically here) is how little attention Obama pays to Asians in his book`s black-white conceptual framework, despite having lived amidst many Asians in Hawaii, Indonesia, Hawaii, Occidental and Columbia. If they`re Muslim Asians, like his friends in college, he`s for them, but otherwise, he barely notices them. In Dreams, Obama`s attitude toward people who aren`t black or white is much like the Rev. Lovejoy`s attitude on The Simpsons towards people who aren`t Christian or Jewish:

Rev. Lovejoy: No, Homer, God didn`t burn your house down, but he was working in the hearts of your friends, be they [points to Ned Flanders] Christian, [points to Krusty the Klown] Jew, or [glances at Apu with lack of interest] … miscellaneous.

Apu: Hindu. There are seven hundred million of us.

Rev. Lovejoy: Aww, that`s super.

In Dreams, Obama`s feelings toward non-Muslim Asians are like those of a New York Yankees-obsessed Boston Red Sox fan regarding the Milwaukee Brewers: “Which league are they in these days?”