In the latest Atlantic magazine, Hua Hsu replies to letters critiquing his article "The End of White America," which I mentioned once before. And there is one thing that he says that bothers me (and he may have said something similar in his article, but at the time it didn't stick with me): "I am reminded of the commentary about Barack Obama's skill (and more important, success) at 'playing white.'"
This statement of Hsu's bothers me because in my opinion it underscores the problem with so much analysis of race, everywhere in the world: it conflates the issues of physiognomy on the one hand and cultural background on the other. You see, Barack Obama is not, in fact, skilled at "playing white," as Hsu says. Culturally, Barack Obama is white. He was raised by a white mother (and her white parents, his grandparents) in the multiethnic but mostly culturally "white" enclaves of Honolulu. It doesn't require any skill on his part to "play white," because it's what comes naturally to him. Being white is Obama's birthright. If anything, Obama's skill is in "playing black," given that he had very little exposure to black culture during his childhood and adolescence (whether we're speaking of blackness of the American, slave-descended variety or of the African immigrant variety).