To call America a post-race country is to suggest that racial prejudice, preference, and discrimination do not exist. It implies that, in America, everyone is treated equally and does not face challenges due to the color of their skin. This is simply not true. While the idea of “color blindness” and a post-racial society sounds good, it is not reality. Some argue that President Obama’s election was an indicator that America was past the issue of racism, that people of all races had equal chances to succeed. While it was certainly a humongous step forward in the right direction, President Obama’s election does not equal an end to racism, and it certainly does not equal an end to discrimination in the United States. The idea that America is “post-racial” is not only a myth, but it is a harmful ideal to hold as people of color all over the country are still heavily affected by racism.

America is very much not post-race and that is highlighted in things like the current unemployment rates. Even after the relaxing of covid restrictions, black workers with bachelors’ degrees continued to lose jobs while their white colleagues gained them. In the first event of economic recovery in April-May of 2020, “white college graduates gained almost 900,000 jobs” (Pew). In contrast, black college graduates lost over 200,000. Though close to 4 million jobs were added after covid restrictions loosened up in May, there were zero improvements in the black unemployment rate. To make this point clear, the percentage of black unemployment increased from 16.7% to 16.8%. Rather than going down as it did for white workers, it only went up. In 2011, William A. Darity Jr. of Duke University told Salon that black people are the “last to be hired in a good economy, and when there’s a downturn, they’re the first to be released” and that still rings true today, a decade later (Pew). If we lived in a post-racial, color-blind America like some suggest we do, this would not be the case.

A point I found interesting in a New York Times article I read from 2016 is this, “Race always plays a role. It never disappears.” This quote from Robin Kelley, a historian, really stuck with me after reading the article about post-racial myths and how Trump put a stop to any progress that might have been made. Kelley explained that white Americans will ignore race when it helps them and default to it when it serves them, which I would agree with. There is this reoccurring theme in American politics where white people see people of color as threats to the “natural order” of things. One example of this is how Richard Nixon ran as a moderate the first time around and failed, but when he took on the strategy of “courting white opposition to civil rights” to appeal to the South, he succeeded (New York Times). Another example of how this might have worked is in the cases of John McCain and Mitt Romney who, for the most part, refused to “stir up racial tensions in their campaigns” and subsequently lost to President Obama (New York Times). Trump very clearly stirred the pot with racial tensions and targets, and we all know how that worked for him. How can America be post-racial, but still create divides like the ones we see politically?

The Black Lives Matter movement has pushed Americans to open their eyes to what is really going on in their country. To illustrate that, as the name states, black lives matter and they are not being treated accordingly. If we lived in a post-racial country, there would be no need for a movement of this nature. Some question whether or not a post-racial society is even possible, and for that, I am not sure. While it seems ideal from the outside, post-race and color-blind ideals are not as straightforward as they seem. Many people suggest that, instead of striving for color-blindness, we should strive for color cognizance. Being aware that the color of one’s skin affects one’s daily life and the opportunities one receive is more effective than attempting to forget that color even exists because, in reality, it does.

America is not a post-racial country, and I’m not sure whether or not we will ever get there or if it would even be the right way to go about the issue of racism.

 

Citations:

Black Professionals Miss out on Recent Job Gains. www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2020/06/22/black-professionals-miss-out-on-recent-job-gains.

DeSilver, Drew. Black Unemployment Rate Is Consistently Twice That of Whites. 27 Aug. 2020, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/08/21/through-good-times-and-bad-black-unemployment-is-consistently-double-that-of-whites/.

Hannah-jones, Nikole. The End of the Postracial Myth. 15 Nov. 2016, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/20/magazine/donald-trumps-america-iowa-race.html.