Read this great post over at Racialicious.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve read opinion and analysis that just leaves me cold.
We did not wake up in a new America, though some of us may feel that way. We’ve been the same country we have always been, and the reports now releasing about hate crimes during the election should remind us that while Obama has a decisive win, there is still a very vocal and unhappy minority. I also find it interesting that folks think there will be progress without cost. As if after every civil rights (and now, arguably, post-civil rights) victory all the opposition just melted away, and that people who were avowed segregationists instantly changed their minds and opened their hearts.
But we all know that did not happen.
She’s right. Nothing has really changed. While Obama’s victory will hopefully usher in a few nice changes to “politics as usual,” it won’t do a whole lot for the inequities of race. What many people are not acknowledging is that Obama came from a fairly privileged white family and was given opportunities that most black children are not. And while the pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps American Dream is possible for some, given the right set of circumstances, a great support system, and luck, the vast majority of Americans struggle to achieve anything unless they are born to white or asian, middle-class or above parents. Its a hard world, full of hurdles and obsticles placed specifically to hinder a certain class of people. And those hurdles have not come crumbling down just because a black/white man was elected president. We still have a lot of work to do, attitudes to overcome, and minds to change before the race problems in America are anywhere close to being over.
For more on this subject, head over to The Indypendent and check out this article.
