The Presidential Inaugration Assignment

Instructions: Work in pairs. Both people have to do all the readings (pdf's and websites) and watch the Presidential Inauguration. You may do so in the presence of each other.

Read: Yang, Mina. “East Meets West” [posted on Collab]
Read: Yang, Jeff. “Could Obama be the first Asian American president?”

Explore: google search “Obama first Asian American president” and read 2 responses to Yang’s article. If you can’t find anything substantial, read these:

• http://michellemalkin.com/2008/07/30/sf-chron-columnist-obamas-the-first-asian-american-president/
• http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/07/31/san-fran-chronicle-obama-will-be-first-asian-american-president
• http://www.asiapacificforum.org/downloads/audio/APF20080805_317_BarackObam.mp3
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96126355

Consider these questions:

• After your research, what is Obama's relation to Asian America?
• Who's present at the inauguration? Which groups of people do these individuals represent? How are race and ethnicity represented at the inauguration?
• Who represents Asian America? How does he/she do so? What does the presence of this API individual(s) reflect in terms of Obama's attitude and policy regarding race and ethnicity?
  
• What music is used at the inauguration ceremony? How does this music reflect or inflect Obama's view on racial relations?

Write: 2-3 page response to the musical representations at the inauguration and the related media, with the emphasis on Obama’s perspective on race and Asian America. Only one response per group.

Due: 9pm Wednesday Jan 21. Post your response on this blog [http://musicinasianamerica.blogspot.com/] using Blogger.com.