It
was the day after the 2008 Presidential election, and we headed out to lunch. Not
to celebrate, but to mourn. Obama had won, and some of us were not happy about
that at all. Normally, I’d have declined the invitation,
but I’ll admit it—I wanted to hear what the heck folks planned on saying.
In
general, the conversation was reserved and resigned. “What’s done is done.” “Time
to move on and hope for a brighter tomorrow.” That kind of stuff. It was almost
boring. Then someone said—
“Well,
if nothing else good comes out of this election, at least we can put some race
issues to bed. If a black man can be elected President, then it’s going to have
to be acknowledged that racism is not that big of a problem anymore.”
Hold on there, sister!
As
a black American, I intended to acknowledge no such thing. So I said, “Now waaaaaait
a minute. Just because one extraordinary man can claim one extraordinary accomplishment
does not mean that racism is no
longer an issue in this country. That would be a big leap.”
As
the only person of color at the table, I was completely outnumbered and outranked, so my opinion didn’t
count for diddly squat. But that didn’t matter to me. So I continued to make my
point, and then somebody changed the subject. Fine.
So
here we are more than four years later, and I hope folks have finally put the
notion of a “post-racial America” aside, ‘cause it was never true, and it
certainly isn’t true now.
In
How To Be Black, Baratunde Thurston
includes a chapter titled “How’s That Post-Racial Thing Working Out for Ya?” in
which he says:
At one point during my writing of this book,
someone suggested to me that I title it Thoughts
on Post-Racial America. I calmly informed this person that the only way the
term “post-racial” America was getting into the title of my book is if it was
called Post-Racial America is Some
Bullshit, and Other Thoughts on How to Be Black.
I
feel you, brother.
Come
on y’all! We are not in a post-racial
America. Between debates about the challenges of the new “nontraditional”
American demographic and ending “entitlements” for folks who just want “free
stuff,” it is clear that US race relations are a major work in progress. (Also,
I’m pretty sure there’s still a fight going on over at Clutch magazine about whether black men hate Scandal because of the interracial
relationship between Olivia and Fitz, which may not be a perfect example, but
it fits, trust me.)
Speaking
of which, I had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day. He’s
white and wanted to know how my husband and I met and whether there was any
conflict in the family as a result of our union. We met in college, I told my
friend, and yeah, there was some conflict. And you know what? While I’m not
interested in perpetuating that conflict, if the only way you can feel good
about me is if I pretend not to be
me, shunning away from all topics that matter to me, then, what good is that?
So
later during the conversation I said to my friend, “My husband and I talk about
race freely. There is no way I could be married to someone who refuses to engage
on these issues.”
Who
needs a “post-racial America” anyway? Instead, can we engage? With honesty? Or are some
of us just going to keep changing the subject?
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