Has Obama's Election Made Post-Racial Reality?

By Alyssa Landers

Ever since the day that Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama was elected, the nation has been buzzing with talk of a so-called “post-racial” utopia that the 47-year-old half-Kenyan, half-American harbinger of Change is supposed to have introduced to American society.  Yet how valid is such claim of racial neutrality in the current political and socioeconomic climate?

            Many who argue in favor of labeling our new American outlook as post-racial are quick to attribute Obama’s presidential success to his newness in what he brings to the table politically and the consequential effects that this promise of change has had upon the will of the nation.  And while Obama does indeed embody a true paradigm of both African and American citizenship—a strong factor in his appeal as a presidential candidate—the environment for change was unquestionably on the horizon. Both a decided increase in the minority population, especially within the Latino community, and the appearance of a new contingent of young voters both contributed to Obama’s road to presidential triumph.  Moreover, it has been said by Carolyn Lochhead of the San Francisco Chronicle that Obama’s unique appeal lies simply in the fact that “he is the first black candidate…who is not running as a black candidate.”  Indeed, the accusations made by both Republican rival John McCain and fellow Democrats Hilary and Bill Clinton that Obama played “the race card” in his campaign by candidly characterizing his nationality as not simply African-American, but as rooted in his experience as “the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas” only served to hurt both candidates in the end.   Even internationally, Obama’s presence as not solely a black political leader but as a strong leader of a nation as powerful as the United States has been felt, especially in countries like South Africa—a nation not unfamiliar with the vast array of symbolic implications that such a racialized political transition can have.    

            However, despite the political windfall that Obama’s election seems to have engendered, it has been observed that racial tensions have actually escalated, particularly in the southern United States.  In fact, in the time leading up to the 2008 election, incidents of racism involving everyone from grown adults to young children have been continuously reported, including incidents involving racial slurs, cross-burnings, and physical harassment—not to mention the now infamous Ashley Todd episode.  Whether or not these kinds of occurrences can be explained as the actions of “a few bad apples” or of a nation still unwilling to cope with a long history of racism remains to be judged.