Life In These (Post-Racial) United States

Racism in the US is not defeated but we are working on it. The Rodney King and OJ Simpson trials were a wake up call to the US that vast differences in opinion, based on two vastly different American experiences affected by race, remained. Those were "we need to talk" watersheds in this country. Years later, the 2008 presidential campaign prompted more frank discussion about whether or not race matters when people choose their elected officials. The results of the presidential election show that race no longer matters among a majority of the voters. (to be continued in part 2)

An example of this is my mother (a lifelong Democrat and former Hillary Clinton supporter). She would not support Obama as a presidential candidate. She said, "Not in my lifetime. I don't want a black as President." This would make me cringe as it is the equivalent of "I don't want a blue-eyed president" which defies all logic. Over the course of the endgame of the campaign, my mom and I discussed the candidates' demeanors. My mom's view began to change. "The more I hear Obama talk, the lighter his skin seems" she said. Although the way this revelation was worded made me cringe even more than the "Not in my lifetime" comment, it did indicate progress in her way of thinking about race. In our discussions I used the eye color analogy. I always think of Bob Marley's words from his song "War" when I hear people (my mom included) judging others based on the color of their skin: "That until there no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation. Until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes -Me say war." To make a long story short, my mom's last comment before the election was,” we need someone in there with fresh ideas about how to fix this country; not the same group of corrupt men that have let it go to pot over the last eight years." I was shocked -an exhilarating shock that my mom who, during my childhood, used the word "colored" to describe my best friend (as opposed to "witty" or "polite") and mistrusted Michelle Obama at the start of the campaign (probably due to the melanin content of her skin) was judging the Presidential candidates "not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character" as Martin Luther King had envisioned.

With "it" being racism in the US, we have shown the world by the way we voted this fall that yes we can and we are "working on it".