Moving Beyond Race: Sizing Up Post-Racial Ideologies

Note: On December 10, 2008, The Herald Times published a guest column written by me titled, "Despite transformative moments, racism still common in America." This is a shortened version of the blog I posted online in November under the title of "Transformative Moments: Election 2008 and The Continued Saliency of Race." If you have a subscription to HeraldTimesOnline.com, you can follow the online commentary about the editorial (see link above). I have reproduced the original column at the end of this blog.

Over the past week, I have received noticed that bloggers were concerned that I omitted the fact that 95% of blacks voted for Obama when highlighting the following:

...Today, the symbolic meaning of race is changing again: some whites look
beyond race (44 percent of whites voted for Obama), some blacks garner...


Bloggers felt that the 95% figure was relevant to my discussion of transformative moments and racism. The discussion that ensued has allowed me to hone in on a point (hopefully) made in the original column that deserves more detailed consideration: The assumptions of post-racial ideologies--the set of beliefs noting that race is now irrelevant to America--are inherently faulty.



A quick reply to this multi-layered concern: The 44% figure was used to highlight the faults of post-racial ideologies. The phrase “move beyond race” is an explicitly post-racial concept to refer to the idea that race is no longer an organizing factor of the social realities and relationships of Americans. This phrase is not a reflection of perceived or real endorsements for or against racial inequality. For a more detailed answer, read below.

The post-racial ideologies endorsed by conservatives and liberals, blacks and whites, and young and old before, after, and during this election have stated explicitly that voting for a black man as President proves that America has moved beyond race. In the post-60s Civil Rights Movement era, the accomplishment of figures such as Oprah and Colin Powell have been interpreted by those endorsing post-racial ideologies as evidence that race no longer differentiates Americans. An increase in levels of support for the extension of civil rights to previously-disenfranchised racial groups, optimistic attitudes towards racial dynamics, and other measures of “hope” have also been taken as signs that America is beyond race.

We must, however, keep in mind that a vote for Barack Obama in 2008 is not only a vote for a non-white President, but also a vote for a political party that is associated with issues concerning non-whites as a collective. During the mid-60s, issues affecting the life circumstances of blacks realigned and polarized the partisanship of white Southerners to be directly in conflict with the partisanship of black Southerners. Since the election of Johnson in 1964, the majority of whites have not voted for a Democratic presidential nominee (blacks’ shift away from Republicans occurred in the election of 1936). Charles Franklin's assessment of state-based variations in whites’ collective support for Democratic presidential nominees at Pollster.com supports the idea that Southern whites still “see” race in this manner.

Regardless of whether looking beyond race implies looking beyond the race of the candidate or the racialized issues that the Democratic Party purportedly supports, a closer examination of post-racial ideologies reveals the flaws in post-racial assumptions. If those who endorse post-racial ideologies are right, then even by their measures the dominant racial group in our society as a collective still has not moved beyond race. Blacks (and Latinos), while visible in elite institutions, are still not proportionally represented in positions of esteem. The philosophy of hope, while noble, does not wipe away inequality and is not hand-in-hand with support for policies that will redress inequalities.

With all this said, I take heart with a deeper issue: the idea currently circulating through the media and behind closed doors that we as a society could, with a series of elections (State Primaries, General Election), move beyond a system of domination that was built into our foundation before the Constitution was even written and has been etched even further into our economic, educational, residential, and political systems by policies and public tolerances that debase the humanity of a whole portion of its members.

Even by the criteria of post-racial ideologies, we as a society have a long road ahead to bridge the racial divide. As I mentioned in the article, the statistics that show black and white inequalities in social and economic living conditions do not lie—whether we in our individual lives "move beyond" race or do not.



Sewell, Abigail A. 2008. "Despite transformative moment, racism still common in America." The Herald Times December 10, 2008: A9.


This guest column was written by Abigail A. Sewell, a doctoral candidate in the Indiana University Department of Sociology. Her areas of expertise are medical sociology, social psychology and race. In 2005, she was selected to be a National Science Foundation Fellow, a Ford Foundation Fellow and a Ronald E. McNair Scholar.

The willingness to believe in the possibilities of America is the social ideology underlying an Obama win. This is my generation’s transformative moment, just as MLK and JFK assassinations were transformative for the generation of the ’60s, the Harlem Renaissance and the Great Depression for the generation of the ’20s, and the Civil War and the end of slavery for the generation of the 1860s. I take this moment to pay homage to my elders who uprooted their families from various parts of the Caribbean under the banner of this hope, to my father who since becoming an American citizen stood in a line for the first time to cast his vote in 2008, and to the generations of Americans — black, white and in between — who have given their lives to the possibility my generation would see this moment. My deepest gratitude is owed to you.

Undoubtedly, America has taken a definitive step towards racial equality in politics. We stand at the brink of a new history — one whose name is more contested, whose identity is more ambiguous and whose future has hardly been conceived. The symbolic implications of race are transforming with this election, just as the symbolic implications of race were transformed with the civil rights movement. Nonetheless, while the post-civil rights era witnessed black as beautiful, black styles as cool and profitable, and black upward mobility as possible, seeds of both dreams and destruction were planted. Hip hop and crack cocaine hit the streets, affirmative action programs and the prison industrial complex blossomed, the size of the black middle class and the black “underclass” grew.

Today, the symbolic meaning of race is changing again: some whites look beyond race (44 percent of whites voted for Obama), some blacks with human and cultural capital garner legitimacy (e.g., Thurgood Marshall, Oprah Winfrey, Colin Powell) and some Americans find hope in the new era. This transformative moment seems to be the embodiment of the much-heralded and often-scolded American Dream.

Possibly, 40 or so years from now, a new generation of hopefuls will usher in the post-racial America many claim is here.

However, even now at the height of our hope, the statistics do not lie. Blacks have higher levels of mortality than other racial/ethnic groups, send their children to less endowed schools and confront lower re-employment rates at the end of recessions.

Black men disproportionately trade paying income taxes for sitting behind the walls of jails on petty drug charges; black women bear the brunt of the spread of HIV/AIDS to previously uninfected populations. Black children face foreclosure, neighborhood decline and segregated spaces at higher rates than other children.

Instead of outright violence, the subtle subtexts of inferiority are etched into attitudes regarding the disloyalty of blacks, the motivational roots of inequality and the hypersensitivity of those who perceive discrimination. The micro and macro processes of racism remain deeply rooted in the American social system.

As a land of immigrants, the “browning” of America has always been deeply American; thus, this “new” America is indeed the authentic perfect union.

As much as Barack is a sign of change, he is the living and breathing embodiment of tokenism. We are still heirs to a society where civil liberties, opportunity structures and social distresses are racialized.

We must remember that a deepening economic crisis, wholesale disdain for anything Bush-related and a near-perfectly organized political campaign has facilitated this moment.

I challenge this new generation to find ways to organize for racial justice — not just by one act at one transformative moment, but by acknowledging the very essence of race in our everyday lives.

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