Race after the Race

Obama’s platform of change has multiple implications and one of them is inevitably race relations in America. The ascendancy of a black man to the presidency is a pivotal leap in America’s racial history. It shows that Americans seem to be tired of divisions across racial lines and now want to bridge divides. In an article in The Nation, Melissa Harris-Lacewell harkens back to W.E.B. du Bois’s work, The Souls of Black Folk, and reminds Americans that blacks were always considered the source of problems in racial issues. Lacewell points out that, for many people, both black and white, “when Barack Obama was elected as the first black president of the United States, African-Americans became the solution instead of the problem.”

Gallup polls show as well that Americans are optimistic about the nation’s future under Obama’s presidency.


Interestingly, I don't feel like Obama plays the race card at all. While some might not consider him to be truly black, he embraces both aspects of his heritage, and by doing so, he does not alienate either blacks or whites. The ability to find common ground on the racial issue shows that his approach is different and promising. He is nowhere near the extremes of "black power" or "white supremacist". When added to the chronology of black and white history, Obama's election serves as the point at which both sides converge and start a new path together.

The issue of race in this election is only one part of the larger influence of race in American politics and society. Race can define party alignments and the implications of one racial group voting for a particular party has certainly caused dramatic shifts the American political scene. The movement of blacks to the Democratic party undermined the power of the Republican party. In one way, while race can be a divisive issue, race also brings all Americans together by engaging them in the political world and by unifying them as members of a republican democracy.