Despite the election of President Barack Obama, many longtime scholars whose work intertwines with race disagree that the country has reached a post-racial period.
WITH BARACK OBAMA ENSCONCED AS THE nation’s first Black president, plenty of voices in the national conversation are trumpeting America as a post-racial society — that race matters much less than it used to, that the boundaries of race have been overcome, that racism is no longer a big problem. “It’s smack down to think America is still all about racism,” says Dr. John McWhorter, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow. “Racism is not Black people’s main problem anymore. To say that is like saying the earth is flat.”
But longtime scholars whose life’s work intertwines with race disagree, even while applauding Obama’s presidency as a milestone. Race, they say, still matters. A lot.
To these scholars, claims of post-racialism hold mirage rather than merit because far too many significant, statistical disparities remain between Whites and minorities in educational attainment, income and net worth, career advancement and health care outcomes. Post-racialism is a goal not yet reached. Therefore, casting aside the role race plays in these inequities as well as race-conscious remedies such as diversity programs, they warn, doesn’t bode well for minorities still struggling.
While the term “post-race” has emerged in national discourse within the past few years, many scholars say the same subtext already lived in catch phrases like “color blind” more than a decade ago. Post-racialism parallels the same ideas that gained traction alongside other historical markers such as the first Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday in 1986.
