Current Issues of 2017
Post-Racial America
Noah Bicksler
As a nation, America has a dark past when it comes to racial
injustice. From slavery, the assimilation of Native Americans, Asian
Americans, segregation and more. There is no question that we have
made some progress when it comes to creating opportunities for
minorities. We even elected our first black president, Barack Obama.
Some use the election of Obama and the success of other minority individuals to prove that minorities no longer have anything to worry about. Some believe that we have conquered the issue of racism and that minorities now have the same opportunities as white people. They believe that racism no longer exists, in other words, we live in what some would call a “post-racial” society. Is this true? I do not believe so. Even though we have made certain strides to end racism, there is no question that it still exists.
As a white male I notice that the people who think that racism is no longer an issue are always white. Why is this? Because we live in a society built around the success of our own race and we do not experience the discrimination that other races do so therefore we often times do not notice it or think that it exists. “Five Signs We’re Not a ‘Post-Racial’ Society” by Sean McElwee says “’In the wake of the Ferguson shooting, a recent Pew poll finds that 47 percent of whites believe that “race is getting more attention than it deserves,’” with regards to the death of Michael Brown, while only 18 percent of African-Americans feel the same. Meanwhile, a similar Pew study found that whites are far less likely to see discrimination in the treatment blacks receive by the education system, the courts and hospitals. Such views are held by many Americans, who believe that “blacks are mostly responsible for their own condition.” Police killings of unarmed blacks are certainly the most visible manifestation of systemic racism, but data shows that racism still manifests itself frequently in everyday life.” Many white Americans think that if we simply stop talking about racism that it will go away. This is not true by any means. As white Americans it is our job to use our white privilege and voice to help speak out, not ignore it.
Whether we choose to believe it or not “In America, race determines not just where someone lives and what school he or she attends, it affects the very air we breathe.” (Sean McElwee) This has developed from years and years of racial imbalance. We, as a nation, have developed racial formations and a social construct that is much deeper and cannot be fixed overnight. “Although many whites wish to believe we live in a “post-racial” society, race appears not just in overt discrimination but in subtle structural factors. It’s impossible to delineate every way race affects us every day, but a cursory examination of major structural racial problems can give us a feeling for how far we still have to go.” What McElwee is saying in this quote is that though many white people wish to think that race no longer matters, they fail to see the subtle discrimination that happens in daily life on a regular basis because they do not experience it themselves.
The issue with the term “post-racial” is that many see the solution as to be colorblind or to ignore our differences. We seek for everyone to be treated and seen as “American”. In many cases when we think of the term “American”, we think white. This is not the solution. Instead of saying “post-racial”, we should use the term “post-racist”. We need to realize that minorities don’t necessarily want to be seen the same as white Americans but equal. Our problem is that we always try to fit people of different cultures into the idea that we have as normal. This is the not the solution. The article “There Is No Post-Racial America” by Ta-nehisi Coates says “Put differently, we should seek not a world where the black race and the white race live in harmony, but a world in which the terms black and white have no real political meaning.” This means that that neither race will conform to one another’s culture but accept each other as separate but equal. Essentially this would be a society where skin color has no real influence or significance when it comes to social status or opportunity. “These two flaws, taken together, expose a kind of fear, not of having a “conversation about race” but of asking the right questions about racism.” If we ever want to make it to a post-racist society we cannot keep ignoring the problems we have.
There’s no question that the United States of America is not so united on a lot of issues. We are split and separated by race, gender, culture, age, political parties, and much more. The opinion about America being a post-racial society is also one that seems to be split down the middle. In the article “Half of America Thinks We Live in a Post-Racial Society — The Other Half, Not So Much”, Alice Speri says “Public opinion on race in America is split almost down the middle — and despite the events of the last few months, most of the division concerns whether race itself is even an issue at all. A staggering number of Americans think race had nothing to do with the high-profile non-indictments of the white police officers who killed black — and unarmed — men Michael Brown and Eric Garner, a survey by the Pew Research Center revealed Monday. And a majority of these people are white.” This quote further highlights that most people that think race does not matter are white. Even when major race crimes take place, people find another reason to justify the event and that it was not about race. Why is this? Because they do not personally go through it and therefore they believe it is not an issue. A big question concerning this topic is, can America ever reach the point of becoming a post-racial society? It would be great if we did but personally I don’t believe that we can, and if we do it will be a very long time from now. The reason I think this way is because it would take years and years to reset what we’ve been building for hundreds of years.
The fact that some people believe that we are currently living in a post-racial or post racist society is surprising to me. It does not matter that slavery is no longer legal or that segregation is no longer around because the hundreds of years we spent doing that to the people of other races has resulted in a backfire of systematic oppression that is still going on today. “Turn on any news program and you can bear witness to racist fraternity chants and violent protests in Ferguson. These images are too raw and relevant to lend belief that the plague of racism has been swept under the rug.” (We do not live in a post-racial society, by Alexandra Hill.)” The fact that more black men are incarcerated today than there were in slavery 100 years ago is not something that we can simply overlook. The fact that police brutality rates are higher for black people than any other race is not something that we can overlook either.
One example that I found is from the article “Don't Tell Me We Are Living In A Post Racial Society” by Natalie Soria. In the article she explains a situation between a teacher and Latina student. “When our teachers cannot give their non-white students due credit, we perpetuate the cycle of implicit bias.” (Soria) The student had written a paper to which the teacher accused her of plagiarizing because she used the same word as another student who happened to be white. Not a phrase or a sentence or a paragraph but a word. “The word in question? "Hence," which was circled; next to the word, the professor wrote "This is not your word." The student was justifiably outraged (as I was when I read about the incident), and she recalls feeling "terrified" and "publicly humiliated" about being called out in front of her class.” (Soria) If you’ve ever been called out by a teacher, a boss, a parent, or any authority figure for that matter, you know how humiliating it is. It is very embarrassing even if you are not in the wrong. Not only did she call her out, she did so in front of her peers. “What bothers me about this incident, aside from the obvious bias, is the fact that the professor didn't bother to even perform a surface-level check to see if there was anything copied and pasted, using one of the many online resources available to check for this sort of thing.” (Soria) The professor made no effort to investigate the situation and handled it very unprofessionally. The professor’s intentions were clearly wrong and biased because the word the student used was “Hence” and this is one of the most common transition words in the English language. This situation was clearly racial because the professor’s reaction was uncalled for and very unprofessional. The use of the same word would not have been an issue if both students were white.
One mainstream and recent event is the release of the movie “Get Out”, directed by Jordan Peele. This movie was very scary and controversial and a shock to a lot of people. “If you haven’t heard already, the movie “Get Out” managed to unsettlingly scare the hell out of eager viewers this past weekend. It raked in millions at the box office.” (Vaughn-Hall) Vaughn-Hall makes a point that this movie helps prove that we are not living in a post-racial society. “And while writer and director Jordan Peele has said he wasn’t aiming for political correctness, it’s safe to say the film spoke volumes about overlooked flaws in society. Most notably, Peele uses this movie to highlight how much we aren’t living in a post-racial society, even though some of us believe we are, due to the fact that we elected a black president.” (Vaugh-Hall) The film shows that society overlooks cultural appropriation, or stealing, stereotyping, and prejudice with a dramatic spin to catch the viewers’ attention and provoke their thoughts. For example, when the main African American character meets his white girlfriend’s parents, the dad begins saying phrases like “my man”, which he would normally not say. He also goes out of his way to say that if he could vote for Obama a third term he would as if this proves that he’s not racist. Many things happen in the movie that bring attention to things that happen in everyday life that some may not notice if we are not going through it. The movie highlights the idea that black culture is seen as cool or popular unless the person engaging in the culture is black.
In conclusion, if you asked random people in your life if they think that we live in a post racial society you would get a number of very different responses. Many people including myself believe that we have made great progress with the civil rights movement and other things. Some would say that we’ve completely moved past it. In reality we have made great strides but some do not realize how recent all of these civil rights events and issues were much more recent than we realize and that there is much more progress to be made. We must think of it like this “Cultural norms don’t change as quickly as we would like them to change. What if on January 1, 2015 there was a law that was put into effect that stated, “America’s favorite sport will no longer be baseball, but soccer.” How long would it take before that law becomes a cultural norm?” (Bailey) In other words, when something has been so set in stone for so long, it cannot simply be changed overnight and this is what a lot of people do not realize. We have to realize that even though we may have a certain awareness and mindset, this does not mean that everyone around us also has the same mindset and they won’t change in such a short amount of time.
Work Cited
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. "There Is No Post-Racial America." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company,
26 June 2015. accessed. 23 Mar. 2017.
Columnist, Alexandra Hill regular. "We do not live in a post-racial society." Collegiate Times.
N.p., 24 Mar. 2015. accessed. 27 Mar. 2017.
"Don't Tell Me We Are Living In A Post-Racial Society." Odyssey. N.p., 01 Nov. 2016.
accessed. 27 Mar. 2017.
McElwee, Sean. "Five Signs We're Not a 'Post-Racial' Society." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 29 Aug. 2014. accessed. 23 Mar. 2017.
Speri, Alice. "Half of America Thinks We Live in a Post-Racial Society - The Other Half, Not
So Much." VICE News. N.p., 09 Dec. 2014. Accessed 27 Mar. 2017.
Vaughn-Hall, Jasmine. "How 'Get Out' Proves We Don't Actually Live In A Post-Racial
Society." Elite Daily. N.p., 28 Feb. 2017. Accessed 27 Mar. 2017.
"Questions You Have Always Wanted to Ask About Race | Q Ideas." Q. N.p., n.d. accessed 27
Mar. 2017.
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