Extract

Chapter Seven

The Common Thread in Post-Racialism

 

Prior to becoming the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama’s political journey as a community organizer and Senator was bolstered by inter-racial support. As a representative of Illinois, Senator Barack Obama took great pride in establishing rapport across racial and ethnic lines. Senator Barack Obama acknowledges that his family’s diversity makes it difficult to be singularly beholden to the black race for reason that he sees himself as the product of an inter-racial couple born in Hawaii. Senator Barack Obama contends that blacks and whites alike don’t offer blind judgments but make appraisals after years of interpersonal interaction.

They sensed what I’d come to know from a lifetime of experience: that whatever preconceived notions white Americans may continue to hold, the overwhelming majority of them these days are able—if given the time—to look beyond race in making their judgments of people. (Obama, 2006, p. 235)

This belief highlights Senator Barack Obama’s faith in the soul of people above and beyond racial loyalties. What’s more, Senator Barack Obama believed that blacks should resist declaring that there has ←121 | 122→been no racial progress because it takes away from the sacrifices of so many other blacks who routinely worked tirelessly to promote equitable civility and access to opportunities to enhance social mobility and improved resource acquisitions. Post-racialism implies that race no longer dominates as the primary ingredient determining advantages and disadvantages...