fter Barack Obama won the presidential election
I was talking to the whites who were upset. In their minds, the election of a black president really meant that we had the dream of Martin Luther King and America, a nation where the people are not judged by the color of their skin but bycheap nfl jerseys the content of their character was. Somehow the fourth November, he became a so-called post-racial society. But my black friends and I have nothing of it. We believe that Barack Obama is promising, but we believe that racism is alive and remains an important factor in American life. Though the first thought is a noble one, it's wildly naive. On the other hand, I believe the second reaction to be an accurate assessment of things -- as long as you take a 500 foot view. Things get messier, however, as you get to ground level.Historically, from the Abolitionist movement of the 1800's through the Civil Rights
movement of the 1960's, there have been significant examples of Blacks and Whites working together to make America a fairer place, but those efforts dealt primarily within the legislative realm. The notion being that once Black people were given the same opportunities as White people, all would be peaches and cream. The Obama Presidency is actually the zenith of this line of thinking. Yet if you go to numerous low-income Black communities today there remain a myriad of problems.The post-racial mindset that the Obama team seems to be projecting is that the problems befalling low-income Black communities needn't be addressed as "race" problems. In his now famous "A More Perfect Union" speech, Obama said, "It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper."I believe Obama's speech was designed to be uplifting for the post-racial era and for the purposes of the campaign it was. The problem is it didn't address the fact that Black people and White people have different narratives in America. If as Obama says, we want to invest in the education of black and brown and white children we have to acknowledge that culturally these children may have different needs.Our book, Still I Rise: A Graphic History of African-Americans is a good primer on the struggles and victories of Black people in America and does so, I believe, without being divisive. In our book we make mention of a gentleman named Carter G. Woodson author of The Mis-Education of The Negro. In this classic book published in 1933, Woodson maintains that Black children in America aren't taught African American (then Negro) history and as such are educated solely in White culture and to be dependent on White people. Now this is arguably an overgeneralization but Woodson's book does resonate with many Black people and his book raises interesting questions. nfl apparel However, in the post-racial era, as posited by some, books like Woodson's or "Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery" by Na'im Akbar may be pushed further to the margins because they could be deemed divisive or outdated. After all, "Obama is now President, you can do anything you want" is the post-racial mindset.For me such a mindset is harmful.A story: my wife Taneshia is the Executive Director of the Trenton Downtown Association and each year TDA celebrates Trenton, New Jersey's storied history as the turning point of the Revolution War with an event called "Patriot's Week". This year, in acknowledgement of the pending Obama presidency, Taneshia commissioned four Black men, all dressed in colonial garb, to read the Declaration of Independence. It was a powerful image especially since at the time of the Revolution just like the rebel colonialists people of African descent also sought independence from their oppressors. It was well received by those in attendance but Taneshia was asked by a covering media reporter, "Why did you choose to emphasize that all the readers were Black?" The reporter followed up by saying that we're in a post-racial society and the Obama election was about our commonalities not our racial differences.To me that demonstrates the paradox of the "post-racial era" thinking. Despite the sincere optimism many White people think it means that when we work together to solve some of societies daunting problems we no longer need to speak explici2 Cowboys jerseytly about race. Whereas to many Black people it means we can speak more openly about race and how we can use our experiences and narratives to turnaround many of the problems in our communities.The next four years should tell us which perspective prevails.Read more: ://.articlesbase/culture-articles/opposing-views-of-a-postracial-society-738659.html#ixzz0ykTEoelj Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
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