Edging (at Times Clumsily) Toward a Post-Racial America

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: On Culture
Edging (at Times Clumsily) Toward a Post-Racial America
By Robin Givhan
Sunday, March 16, 2008; Page M01

We are supposed to be living in post-racial times: Black mayors such as Washington's Adrian Fenty and Newark's Cory Booker preside over predominantly black cities with a philosophy based on transcending differences. An African American candidate for president has won primaries and caucuses in overwhelmingly white states such as Iowa and Wyoming and is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. These men are not concentrating on racial uplift so much as on individual uplift.

We are so deep into these post-racial times, it seems, that Geraldine Ferraro suggested that being African American has become an advantage, at least in the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama. "A white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept," said Ferraro, a supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Obama's people got mad at the implication that racial politics was fueling his campaign. Then the pundits got into it. And then Ferraro hit the morning talk shows to let everyone know that she wasn't a racist. But just in time for the evening news, she resigned from her position in the Clinton campaign, which shouldn't even have been necessary because all she did was observe that as a culture we haven't so much transcended race as become enamored of it.

As Obama racks up delegates, even those who do not support him have made a mental note that this is a momentous occasion in this country's history. What makes it so compelling is directly related to race -- from the stereotypes that have been crushed to the facts of Obama's personal story. His race, coupled with the rest of his resume, make him the candidate that he is. If we are ever to settle comfortably into a post-racial world, we'll have to come to grips with the idea that race matters in ways that can be enlightening, entertaining and inspiring. And that's not a bad thing....

***

Tomorrow, (Eliot Spitzer's) lieutenant governor steps into the lead job. That's David Paterson, 53, who has been described as a consensus builder. He would be New York's first African American governor. He may not be post-racial or post-black. He may merely be a black man -- neither symbolic nor aggrieved. And that would be a relief.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/14/AR2008031401072.html?hpid=sec-artsliving