This week Hillary Clinton’s campaign announced a list of prominent Hawaii Filipinos who have endorsed her candidacy. That followed an earlier list of prominent Hawaii Japanese-Americans who endorsed her.

Um …

How to put this … er …

Isn’t the underlying assumption with these sort of bloc endorsements kind of, well, not respectful of individual ideals and values and the ability — not to mention the right — of people regardless of race or ethnicity or cultural group, to think for themselves?

Isn’t the assumption that all Japanese people or all Filipino people or all fill-in-the-blank people feel this way because some in their group feel this way kind of … reductive and … um, yeah … racist?

Now, this is not an accusation pointing at the Hawaii Clinton campaign. These two self-identifying groups more than likely initiated their own endorsement. But identifying political groups by race or ethnicity, even self-identifying, seems odd and out of date in our modern times, not to mention potentially thorny, depending on who is doing the identifying, for what purpose and with what assumptions about the group.

Yes, this is very much a part of both American politics and Hawaii politics. Political reporters discuss “how the Japanese voted” and “the Filipino vote” during Hawaii election coverage without any worry that what they’re saying somehow carries bias or insult.

But it’s beginning to wear thin, especially because within those groups there is so much diversity.

In the past, when people of a certain racial or ethnic group truly did share common concerns because of socioeconomic status, it made more descriptive sense to discuss that shared voter profile.

But in 2016 shouldn’t we be past that? Or at least a little farther down the road?

How about the other groups in Hawaii? Who are Caucasians voting for? How about the Chinese? Which candidates are Native Hawaiians supporting in the election?

It sounds simplistic and reductive to speak that way, right?

Racism isn’t only about inequality. It’s about the refusal to recognize that people are individuals and that regardless of what we look like or where our ancestors came from, we have the right to our own beliefs and the power to shape our own destiny.

If the idea behind an ethnic bloc endorsement is that the support of “prominent” members of a particular race or culture will influence unprominent members of that group, that’s problematic. It’s assuming voters will follow the leader like preschoolers on a field trip. Go where you’re told. Vote like we tell you to vote.

Politicians are supposed to be colorblind, but their campaigns are as color obsessed as an OCD interior decorator picking curtains. Voters are supposed to be free-thinking and independently acting. Or maybe we’re not as progressive, diverse and engaged as we say we are.

Or maybe there’s another way to look at this: in earlier times nobody would pay attention to the political endorsements of two groups of minorities. Maybe this is a sign of progress.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.