A Post-Racial Society?

I am going to try to keep this short. I am blogging Hitchens-style, meaning that I am doing it from a brewery after a few drinks. I am no Hitchens (thank God) and this isn't necessarily my best.

With Obama's victory in the Democratic primary, there is much talk among pundits that the United States is a post-racial society. I don't think this is true in any way. But if there is any truth to it, it is only if you look at race completely separate from class. In 2008, a black man can win the presidential nomination in the Democratic Party. Enough whites are comfortable with this to make it happen. A large percentage of those whites are young. This is a great thing. This nation has come a long way in dealing with its original sin.

On the other hand, if you do take class into account, you see that the intersections of race and class are still extremely powerful in American society and that most whites, including those who are the biggest Obama supporters, don't want to deal with it. I am currently in Louisville, grading AP U.S. history exams. They have hired a support staff to help us out. They seem to be relatively competent, although they managed to lose my I-9 form which resulted in a very annoying and unnecessary threat to send me back to Texas. Of course, 80% of the graders, a group made up of college professors and high school teachers, are white. There are a random smattering of African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians. I suppose there are probably a few Native Americans too though none that were obvious to me. And equally as obviously, 80% of the support staff are black, making low wages.

We simply cannot refer to a post-racial society so long as the majority of African-Americans are in low-wage jobs or are unemployed. So long as such demographics are seen when the educated and uneducated meet, we do not live in a society that does not include race as a central point of difference. Because the difference in intelligence in that room between the white historians and the black support workers is pretty damn small, if it exists at all. Yet for so many reasons related to historical and current inequality in American society, we whiteys are grading for good money and the African-Americans are helping for significantly less money.

Don't get me wrong--whites under the age of 40 are doing a lot of good concerning race in this country. More than any generation since the Civil War. In combination with the continued activism of African-Americans, as well as other minority groups. real progress has taken place. And this progress is best personified in the amazing success of Obama. But the same whites who are good on race just don't want to talk about class because it threatens their status as young professionals who have made a lot of money. This is a major problem. Young African-Americans still face disadvantages that whites don't, including in education, housing, police treatment, and job opportunities. I hope an Obama presidency will work to address these issues in ways no president has since Lyndon Johnson. But I also fear it will alienate some of his white followers.