“It is a little funny, though: in 2008 the New York Times didn’t know how to pigeon Kagukawa racially:
They referred to him as Japanese-Hawaiian which would explain his race. He is definitely not black as blacks define it. Asian-Pacific Islander would do it I guess.
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I'm puzzled as to why the Times wasn't clearer on that score. It looks like the started the paragraph that way, but punted at the last minute.
Given that Japanese were the largest nationality group in Hawaii for a time, being Japanese-Hawaiian wouldn't necessarily have made Kakugawa an outsider, even at a swanky school like Punahou.
More here, from way back in '08. Whoever wrote Obama's memoir fictionalized Keith Kakugawa as "Ray," an angry young Black man (assuming Keith's right) and said they had angry conversations about race. Kakugawa said they weren't that into the whole race thing.