It's Way Too Soon to Get "Post-Racial"

Hey, feel free to stop me if you disagree but, in my opinion, it's a little too early for us to be talking seriously about America's need to enter the "post-racial era."

I know, I know ... all the intelligent, Ivy League-educated, African-American politicians are big advocates for all of this and they have numerous reasons for us to give up the "baggage" of being black in America and to fall right in line.

As it's been explained, especially by mainstream media outlets, you know your society is "post-racial" when African Americans reject their own racial-identity politics and when they collectively answer a resounding "no" when they're asked: "Does Race Still Matter?" (In case you missed it, that very question was printed in bold, white letters to the left of a "tight," pensive photo of Barack Obama on the cover of U.S. News and World Report, in mid-February).

Let me re-emphasize: As I understand it, we, as a nation, will know when we finally reach "post-racial consciousness" when black Americans stop seeing themselves as black, stop being concerned about the quality of life in black communities, stop being impatient with high rates of black unemployment and poverty and stop asking political candidates to specifically address their community's legitimate issues.

As it's been explained to me, under "post-racialism," Hispanics can continue to have an Hispanic political agenda, white Christian conservatives can still bring sharp focus to their political interests, and Asians can still express their concerns about fair treatment and economic access in this country, and for those in their countries of origin.

No, under this new, "enlightened" political theory, the only ethnic or racial group that has to walk away from its own economic interests, its own continuing need for fairness and respect, its own need for a separate political agenda, is black folks. The most interesting thing about all of this is the great lengths to which mainstream media and their politically fawning accomplices will go to convince us that this is the new, sophisticated 21st century way to do the political business of this country.

Please remind me, is the purpose of politics simply to get a candidate elected, or is it to have the issues of the voters addressed? It seems to me that without issues, we reduce the election--local, statewide or national--to an emotional, popularity contest. Maybe that's why we seem, as blacks, to get so very little from the political process. We're happy when "our candidate" or "our party" wins, and then, because we've been persuaded that we don't need a political agenda like every other group in this country, we go right back to being "broke," ignored and left out, until we're called for, again, in the next election cycle.

Here's a thought: before we all get "post-racial," let's make sure that we completely resolve the unfinished black/white economic disparities that have caused so much of the ongoing need to identify ourselves as black, in the first place.

I'd love to "let bygones be bygones," and I'd probably love it even more if the broad mass of African Americans were on the upside, rather than the downside, of the nation's economic disparities, as our white countrymen have been for, oh, about 400 years.

For example, I'd be really ready to get "post-racial," right now, if:
- The Brookings Institution hadn't recently reminded us all that, in 1974, the typical black family had an income that was 63% of the typical white family's, but, by 2004, the typical black family's income had dropped to just 58% of that in the typical white household,
- Notwithstanding our $854 billion dollars in annual black spending power, the African-American poverty rate in 2006 was not 33% as compared to 12% for whites,
-88% of "high-minority" public schools in our country were not also "high-poverty" schools, (where more than 50% of students are on “free and reduced lunch”),
- Blacks at Fortune 1000 corporations were not just 3 percent of senior management positions and 1.6% of chief executives,
- Incomes among black men had not actually declined since the Civil Rights movement, when adjusted for inflation,
- It were not true that just one in three black children of middle-income families grew up to have higher incomes than their parents, since the Civil Rights era (During the same period, two out of three white children of middle-income families eventually earned higher incomes than their parents).
- African-American median net worth, in 2002, wasn't just $5,998, as compared with $88,651 for whites. (In addition, 32% of blacks have zero or negative net worth).
- Upper-income African Americans, according to a recent report by ACORN, were not still being turned down almost three times more often than upper-income whites, when applying for mortgages, and
-Upper income blacks were not still being rejected for mortgages more than moderate income whites whose incomes were only about half as much as that of the black applicants.

I trust, as we move, now, into the Party Conventions and the General Election, that we understand how much focused work we still have to do, how many pointed questions about our community's quality of life we still have to ask, before we blindly and prematurely discard the need to hold candidates accountable for helping us to close these and other, longstanding social and economic gaps.

Hey, once we've crossed those bridges, I promise, I'll be the first person to get "post-racial."

I swear, when that day comes, I'll be the first in line---but not one day earlier.



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