For the last post in my Civic Issue Blog Thread, I’m going to discuss how this idea of a Post-racial America fits in and works in today’s political and social climate, based off of what I experience as a black woman in this so-called post-racial America.

A vast majority of the population (mostly non-black people) believes that because we had a black president, life for African Americans and other minority groups has been exponentially better than it ever has. When compared to the conditions of 60 years ago, black people are most definitely in a much better position than during and before the civil rights movement, but we have not come as far as one would have believed us to.

Here are some stats:

• In 1963 the unemployment rate for whites was 5 percent and was 10.9 percent for blacks. In 2013 it was 6.6 percent for whites and 12.6 percent for blacks. Black Americans have always had an unemployment rate higher than the recession levels. From 1963 to 2012, the annual black unemployment rate averaged 11.6 percent, while the average annual national unemployment rate during the recessions in this period was 6.7 percent.
• The average household income between black and white households has barely narrowed. In 2010 the average income of a black household was $32,068, while the average income of a white household was $54,620
• In 1960, 262 white men for every 100,000 was incarcerated while 1,313 black men for every 100,000 was incarcerated. In 2010 678 white men for every 100,000 was incarcerated while 4,347 black men for every 100,000 was incarcerated. A large number of people incarcerated can be contributed to the War on Drugs, a government-led initiative to deal with the drug crisis in the United States. This “war” created legislation that placed a heavy emphasis on punishment for drug offenses, but it also had some racially coded aspects of it that lead to the mass incarceration of blacks. An example of how this could be racially coded is that possession of a gram of cocaine is considered a misdemeanor while the possession of a gram of crack is regarded as a felony. There is no difference between the substances besides the cut. However, cocaine is typically thought of as a more affluent drug than crack which is cheap and found in more lower income areas.

 

What this shows is that since the 1960’s not much has changed besides the fact that racism is more implicit than explicit. While people are no longer demanding that we are segregated or blatantly attacking blacks unprovoked (in most cases), there are still numerous examples of implicit racism.

Jobs are more likely to hire someone whose name does not “sound black.” People still think that the only reason why some black people are attending their schools is because of affirmative action and not because of their own merit. Unarmed black boys are being shot down in the street by officers and being told “maybe they shouldn’t have ran” as if that’s justification for death, while white men are dancing on the highway after engaging in a high-speed chase. Our president is attempting to ban a religion and build a wall to keep “animals” out, referring to people from Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries.

Being black in America although not as hard as it was in the 1960s, is still a difficult terrain to navigate because you feel as though you should be on the same level as your white counterparts, but there are still people out there who believe otherwise. You still have to work twice as hard to get half of what they have.

A black president was not and is not the end-all solution to racism and the beginning of a post-racial solution. A real post-racial society where everyone no matter color or even gender, sexuality, and religion are equal will not come about over not. It will only happen if those with the power and privilege are willing to advocate for those without because as far as we have come, there is still much further to go.