Tuesday, January 27, 2009

WHAT post-racial future?

Headline on Clarence Page's column in this morning's Houston Chronicle:

Stumbling blocks en route to post-racial future

And I am thinking, um, WHAT post-racial future? If the inaugural benediction is any kind of indication, race will be playing just as big of a part in American society and politics as it always has. Probably even more so, because there are going to be all sorts of people expecting all sorts of payback and bitching loud enough to wake the dead if they don't get it. I don't know where some people have gotten the idea that Caucasians have the monopoly on racism. Maybe it's the fact that it's so politically incorrect to suggest otherwise, despite the rantings of people like Spike Lee. Still though, I don't know how supposedly learned individuals like Clarence Page can delude themselves like they do. Old-fashioned racism is a resilient beast that knows victims of all colors and we're not doing ourselves any favors by ignoring it just because it comes from those who are supposedly immune to it.