Now that we have elected Barack Obama as President, has the United States entered a post-racial era? “I wish,” said William Raspberry in a recent Washington Post article.
Mr. Raspberry, a former long-time nationally-syndicated columnist, is Founder and President of Baby Steps, an organization designed to empower parents of preschoolers to better understand the value of education for their children.
I spoke with him last week and asked how will we know that we have become post-racial? With his characteristic honesty, he said, “I don’t know.” We will not realize that we have reached this milestone “until it happens.”
Thankfully, he did not leave me dangling in that tree. We will “know when we stop counting; [when] it won’t interest us anymore” whether those selected for government or business positions are black, Hispanic, Muslim, or left-handed Swedish-surnamed individuals with bad knees like me.
For centuries, our country has been dealing in -- or with – the slavery issue. Its legacy is so ugly that people can conceptually understand how it can hang like an unwelcomed repulsive shroud over our Republic.
For some, of course, it is neither merely conceptual nor philosophical. It is real. Thus, the African-American experience of slavery, and its remnant, is different and far more compelling for them than the non-black.
Slavery ended 145 years ago. Civil rights legislation was enacted nearly a half-century ago. We have addressed the problem. It is time to move on.
But can it be that easy, especially for the Black community?
No, as Mr. Raspberry’s article mentioned “remembrance” as the device used – perhaps unwittingly – by those in the community whose ancestors suffered in slavery but whose descendants did not and are now generations removed from it.
These stories and memories – remembrances -- “can be burdens that keep us from our potentials. Some African-Americans have convinced themselves that if an official apology is made,” they can get over the past injustices. “Probably not,” Mr. Raspberry said. After all, how powerful can an apology be that is given by people not responsible for maintaining slavery to those who did not experience it first-hand?
For years I have agonized over and written about the state of racial affairs. Of course, what I say does not matter a whit. Those who carry this history within themselves day and night are certainly not going to be swayed by me. I cannot understand having skin color be the means by which people identify me.
My mother’s family was Irish and suffered discrimination because of it. Storefront signs boldly read “No Irish Need Apply.” Yet, the Irish have been successfully assimilated into American society. Was that because skin color and other physical traits ceased over time to identify that group?
That same explanation does not apply to Asians, however. Are they assimilating better? Is it because they do not possess the same remembrance? What about the World War II internment of Japanese-Americans?
These questions are not asked to trivialize the black experience or to question the enduring problems facing that community. Rather, they are raised to further a national dialogue and bring us closer to a post-racial world.
How will we know we are post-racial? Is it when fewer than 10% of the population harbors ill feelings towards another segment of society? Or is the number 5%, or 1%?
How do I perceive you and how do I perceive myself? Whether or not I belong to the dominant societal class, the manner in which I regard other individuals or ethnic groups will determine how well I fit and interact within my society.
It ultimately boils down to attitude. When the ‘collective we’ no longer cares who is President, or the first CEO in Industry X, or male or female, we will have evolved to a new state.
We will be post-racial.
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Fred W. Apelquist, III, M.Ed.
Approximately 635 words.
© November 16, 2008
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