Opinion
November 5
Boy, does it feel good to be post-race. No, not that kind of race. Post-presidential race. No more election punditry, infomercials instead of baseball games, or Saturday Night Lives with political cameos.
It's exciting to say that the first time I voted for president, I voted for Sen. Barack Obama. My generation voted in record numbers to put the first black man in the most powerful office in the world. I have no doubt this is a generational shift in American politics.
Just as a student who earns a perfect score on the written driving test but has no road experience cannot drive, electing a black man as president doesn't mark the end of racism in the United States. One man in the president's mansion doesn't make us post-race (the other kind of race). Racism is perpetuated by historical and modern perceptions of people of color, and it will take an entire society — not just one man, no matter how powerful he is — to change these deep-seeded beliefs.
People could have voted for Obama for any number of reasons beyond race. Because they wanted to see the end of Vietnam-era leadership in Iraq, they didn't want to vote for a septuagenarian, among other reasons. In fact, I hope there were very few people who voted for Obama just because he is black, just like I hope people didn't vote for Sen. John McCain because he is white. This whole discussion denies the legitimacy of the structures of racism and nativism that condemn all people of color in the United States, not just people who are black or racially mixed.
This campaign has brought racism to the fore and has shown that many Americans can't articulate issues about race beyond the second- or third-grade level. One undecided voter in Nevada expressed concern that a black man might not be able to run the country effectively. An Obama supporter canvassing door to door, responded: "[Obama is] half white and he was raised by his white mother. So his views are more white than black, really."
People praised John McCain for cutting off a woman in Lakeville, Minn. who called Obama what is some Americans' new four-letter word: "Arab." McCain pulled the microphone from her hand and said Obama is not an Arab, but in fact is a "decent family man, a citizen." McCain implied that an American couldn't simultaneously be Arab and a decent citizen. That might not be what McCain meant, but that's what some people thought, and neither candidate has effectively engaged the issue.
It was politically prudent for Obama to avoid race during the campaign. He only made one speech specifically devoted to that issue, and that only occurred because he had to address it in the aftermath of the hubbub about Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But I hope that now that Obama is elected, he can lead a national conversation about race. We absolutely need legislative reform to fight institutionalized racism, but we also need a bold leader who won't shy away from controversy.
I see race everyday. I must in order to see and fight social injustice in the United States. Barack Obama won't change any of that. We cannot assume that the new president marks an end to American racism. Indeed, in some parts of the country, he might make it worse where people simply cannot accept the fact that Barack Hussein Obama is our president.
Obama does make me hope. Hopefully Obama's presidency will be the beginning of a conversation about marginalized people in the United States, not the end it.
Duncan Pickard is a junior majoring in history and American studies. He is also the TCU president.
