I'm Not Post-Racial

[kwassa]

This is the companion opinion piece to "Obama Is Not Black". Both were on the front of the Outlook section of the Washington Post yesterday, and this expresses a very different point of view.

..........................
I'm Not Post-Racial
By Krissah Williams Thompson
Sunday, November 30, 2008; Page B01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/28/AR2008112802233.html?sid=ST2008112900984&s_pos=list

My high school was big and diverse, and I questioned the racial make-up of our classrooms. There were 4,000 students and 787 in my graduating class, but I was one of only two black kids in the AP honors courses. I thought the racial disparity had to be more of a systemic problem than some issue endemic to blacks.

Looking back, I realize that during high school I unconsciously developed a feeling of racial vulnerability, defensiveness and sometimes anger. It was those feelings that caused me to seek out people who I felt would understand. I didn't shut myself off from others, but I did draw closer to African Americans, who could empathize.


........

What the president-elect said about race eight months ago in a speech in Philadelphia, which he called "A More Perfect Union," was much more complex than any cliched notion of unity. He described the country as being at a racial stalemate. "Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle," Obama said.

Cassandra Butts, a senior Obama adviser who is African American, told the Wall Street Journal in the closing days of the campaign that she doesn't consider Obama "a post-racial" politician. "When people say that, they seem to suggest that we are beyond the issue of race, that issues of race don't matter," she said. "I don't think that is necessarily the case. I don't think Barack considers himself post-racial in that way. He will tell you he thinks race does matter."

[Terran]

1. I think the idea of "post-racial" is for people who have no idea

what racism really is. Obama may represent some kind of tipping point where the US finally starts to overcome the most public forms of racism, but racism is complicated and its consequences are deeply embedded in our culture and our economy. It's not going to go away any time soon. I see the idea tossed around a lot that once the current generations of older people die out (those who are, say, over 25), there will no longer be any racism. That simply isn't true.

[kwassa]

4. I'd be curious about the origin of the word "post-racial"

It is very popular, seems to suggest that we are past all consideration of racial matters, and that race is no longer a problem.

What bothers me about it is that it can be dropped in the bucket of those who think we can get by racial issues by simply not talking about them, which is really just a form of denial, and solves nothing. People who would just, sort of, skip over the conversation.

[Terran]

6. probably some talking head floated it during the election

maybe before Obama even won. I think lots of right-wing types have an interest in keeping the idea alive, so there it sits. But somehow I also don't think it's being taken very seriously, not when there's so much obvious evidence to the contrary.

[speakclearly]

9. Obama is the source

of the remark about "post-racial". You can call it insightful. You can call it visionary. You can call it naive. You can call it anything you like, but it was his reamrk that brought it into the lexicon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_6aLDQTleU

[kwassa]

11. maybe he said it, but it is not in that clip.

It is in the title of the clip, and while Obama gave a great speech about moving on past divisions in our society, he didn't use the word "post-racial" in this speech.

[kwassa]

12. kick!

[speakclearly]

7. "We have overcome"

the most public forms of racism already. We have no more segregation. Blacks have equal access to voting (with some rare incidences of "suppression", possibly). We have equal access to public schooling (although not all schools are equal). We have eliminated racial preferences (in large measures) and even have some "affrimative action" in place to overcome past discrimination. "Red-lining" may exist in some aspects, but is largely non-existant in the vast majority of communities.

The type of racism that we have today is much more subtle. It has more to do with internal feelings that usually stay hidden behind a mask of "tolerance". There is still resentment, on both sides, but there are few outward expressions of discrimination or intolerance. Racism has not ended, but it is greatly reduced, and what remains is largely hidden.

Will it "go away soon"? Not likely. But the danger it represents affects peoples' lives much less. It is publically not tolerated to express "racism" in our society. Whites are truly shocked, hurt, and demeened when they are called "racist". That is not probably the most hateful insult you can use against a white person. Racism used to be a badge of courage. Whites used to express racism and be patted on the back by others. No longer. Now they hide their head in shame if they are deemed to have "crossed a line". Society rejects them. They resign from office or are fired from jobs.

Racism in somplicated, but is now more relegated to the "natural" state of people tend to prefer to associate with those like themselves, rather than outright "racism". That is more of a biological response to "family" and "clannishbehavior" than it is racism. Virtually all animals express the same type of "racism" in their behaviors. They hang with their own herd, and are rejected by other groups, even of their "own kind".

The election of Obama expresses the fall of the final barrier to "equality". While he won a huge majority of minority votes, there is no question that his election is due to "acceptance" by "middle america" that blacks are equal to whites in leadership and intelligence as well as socially acceptable. That does not "end racism", but it surely represents the end of outward expression of racism as being acceptable in public. It means we are near the end, not just beginning, of ending racism in America. And it is surely evidence that America is much further advanced in this regard than virtually any other nation on earth.

This is much more than a "start".

[hendo]

10. the more subtle type of racism

is more destructive because it cannot be stopped by laws, or ammendments to the constitution.

Racism is not sometihng that we can get away from so easily.

Not that this is necessarily an attack on your post mind you. I find your post to be great, but I thought it needed to be said.

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[Bicoastal]

3. I'm Post-Rachel.

Talk me down, somebody.

[Raineyb]

5. I rather agree with the article

I always thought that declarations of now being post-racial were some folks way of pretending that race is no longer an issue. Considering how much time this country has spent not dealing with race I find the notion of the country being post racial utterly laughable.

Regards

[Brewman_Jax]

8. So true

statistics didn't magically change and become even/equal/proportional--justice, employment, etc.

It's sad when hate groups are glad for Obama because they say it gives them recruiting material.

The exception is not the rule.