The Post-Racial Question In 2016
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Politics and Activism

The Post-Racial Question In 2016

A new point of view.

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The Post-Racial Question In 2016

What does it mean to exist in a post racial America? This is a question that many have asked in the last few years, usually in reference to the election of president Barrack Obama in 2008. However, the very nature of this question is inherently problematic in a few key ways. First, it allows the history of American racialism to be split into two parts: pre-racial America and post-racial America. This perpetuates the understanding that racialism, the idea that the human race can be split into distinct races and that each race possesses characteristics or abilities specific to that race especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races, is an issue no longer relevant to today’s society. Such a belief can be debunked just by turning on the news or spending any amount of time on a social media platform. Movements such as the #BlackLivesMatter wouldn’t exist if racism was surly a thing of the past.

Second, it implies that post-racial America is an idealized space in which we exist instead of a point of time in which we experience, again perpetuating a false notion of racial equality. By this I mean that Racism in the US cannot be thought of as tethered to America “the space” because that suggests in any given situation one would only have to change location in order to escape the effects of racialism. This in practice is actually very improbable for anyone that belongs to a non-white group. Instead racism exists as an enduring concept that transcends any physical boundaries. It is, as mentioned before, an ideal that exists in the minds of the people that hold its tenants to be true and such cannot be restrained if one chooses to act upon the idea.

So, taking these problematic stances into consideration, why is the idea of a post racial America prevalent? For that matter, why is it that the question of what it means to live in a post racial America, even exist? Well, the term post racial first enters the popular American rhetoric around October 5, 1971 after the publishing of a New York Times article called “Compact Set Up for 'Post-Racial' South” after the article references America as a county that is moving toward a path in which race will no longer have value Interesting.

The term once again got national attention When in 2009, CNN reporter Lou Dobbs said, “We are now in a 21st-century post-partisan, post-racial society.” Since then there have been several groups that protested agents such a notion like the Huffington post and the Black Lives Matter moment, but what is more interesting are the groups which subscribe to the notion of a post racial America.

According to a Pew Research study the disparity between those that believe in a post racial society and those that do not are racially divided while America is split down the middle on this issue, the majority who believe America is post racial are white while the other side is made up of majority non-whites. Still what does all of this mean in the context of the post racial question?

It means that we need to think about answering this question in a different context. This is not to say that the questions are completely invalid. Far from it actually. We cannot answer the question in a literal format given the inherent bias. What we focus on answering is not what it means to exist within a post racial America, but what does it mean to exist within an America that in part believes it is post racial and why it is that this belief endures despise continuing evidence to the contrary.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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