Post-Racial?

A side discussion that seems to be happening out there with the Obama inauguration is concerned with whether or not America has moved on from racism, or if in large part we have become a "Post-Racial" society.

So it seemed the best place to start in thinking about the whole idea was to grab the definition of racism. Here's the definition from Dictionary.com

1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3. hatred or intolerance of another race or other races

So has our society largely moved on in terms of the above definition?

Well, nobody that's taken seriously believes the first point. In fact, the level of political correctness we find ourselves in today would cause anyone expressing racial superiority for any race to be ostracized or possibly even jailed.

I'm aware of no government policy based on the first idea. In fact, there's plenty of accepted discrimination in government and big business. When it's racial it's discrimination that hires and promotes based on race where the "majority" race is the one discriminated against. Other types of discrimination happen every day against people of all races, except perhaps those given favoritism: it's considered perfectly acceptable to discriminate against smokers, overweight, unattractive, uneducated or undereducated, speech impaired, etc. But none dares discriminate against black or mixed-race individuals, at least not where such discrimination can be detected.

Hatred and intolerance is the most interesting part of the definition for me. Does anyone actually "hate" an entire race? None but perhaps the most extreme paranoids.

So, based on the above definition, I'd say we have been "post-racial" for a very long time.

I hear some continue to suggest that the mere fact that black people are statistically more likely to be poor, unemployed, and/or incarcerated is enough to prove that an invisible institutional racism is still in play.

Any reasonable analysis of the root causes of these problems in the black community would have to assume that the blame is misdirected. Although it can be said that government policies beginning with LBJ's "Great Society" either caused or exacerbated the problems in the black community just as it caused today's ongoing problems in all communities, the problem is mainly cultural.

The "Great Society" led to welfare programs that rewarded single mothers, with greater benefits based on the number of children in the home. Husbands were a detriment to getting so many benefits, including housing, food stamps, medical care, free education, and even a paycheck. So women of all races abandoned marriage and the nuclear family to get the government free ride. This devastated both black and white communities, but especially the black community.

Asians, Hispanics, Carribean Islanders, and even African immigrants arrived by the millions and found great success. People from places like Korea and India opened businesses in the black neighborhoods and found success, albeit sometimes angering some in those communities who somehow felt victimized by those entrepreneurs.

Affirmative Action and the simple attitudes of people trying to help the black community escape poverty led to companies scouring the country for qualified black candidates. But qualified candidates were hard to find, because so much of the black community rejected American Public Education as white institutions. Somehow excelling in school became akin to playing "Uncle Tom", knuckling under to some sort of oppressive system set up by some invisible white conspiracy.

Forced busing was tried, and didn't work. Now Charter Schools and Magnet Schools are popping up everywhere, but the jury's still out on their long-term prospects.

Truly there is a much greater number of successful people from the black community today than ever before. It just seems that the message hasn't fully reached the multi-generational welfare classes. Want to escape from the ghettos? Go to school, study hard, and get into college. It probably requires the strongest of wills and courage to buck the attitudes of others, but absolutely can be achieved by those willing to put forth the effort.

Unfortunately for many the "hope" and "change" promised by the new president isn't about equality, but socialism. The victimized underclass are poor not because of anything they did or failed to do, but because of some sort of national conspiracy designed to keep them poor and in the inner cities. So the answers they seek seem to revolve around new government "programs" that will simply re-emphasize the welfare state. The "change" many seem to "hope" for is ever expanding welfare checks that allow the poor oppressed to live a middle-class lifestyle without having to go to work every day.

And I promise I'm not being racist by suggesting that these may be underlying goals of many of those celebrating tomorrow's inauguration. Because those goals belong to millions of people of all races, who somehow think they will soon get free healthcare, higher wages, a nicer car, a better home, or low energy bills just because the almighty Obama will somehow make the evil capitalists stop gouging and exploiting everyone.

Such a letdown for all of those masses who believe the Obama fairy tales.