Post-Race

I hear we are post-everything these days. We were once "Post-Cold War," but now we're "Post-9/11." Soon, but not soon enough, we'll be "post-recession." Today, we live in the era of the Obama, but we'll be "post-Obama" one day too. A friend recently wrote on Twitter: "I'm really sick of people pretending we live in a post-homophobic society."

And of course, we claim to be "post-race."

We're not, in my opinion, but that does seem to be the consensus ideal goal: for our society to be "blind" that is, to the color of another one's skin. I'd like to believe that at least, but there's evidence that we're not nearly at that point yet. And thats okay!! We'll get there! It's just going to take time.

Are you, "color-blind"??

One sign that we are making some progress will appear in an upcoming film, "The Princess and the Frog." The Washington Post just did an article about this movie that I think is well-worth reading. In the 72 years of Disney, the Post explains, there have been eight Disney princesses that star in their own film. Two of those princesses have been non-white (Mulan and Pocahontas), the rest of them have been white. Tiana will be a first - she will be black.

Is a black Disney princess necessary in today's "modern" American society?... a society that sometimes claims to be color-blind, or post-race? These Gentlemen had a similar debate last month about the representation of minorities in the entertainment media through two essays. The first essay by John Oz discussed how writers/producers are usually white, and how that may explain why many television characters are white. The second essay by B. Graham followed Oz's article with an essay criticizing the entertainment industry for not more frequently casting color-blind. Also be sure to check out the discussions that followed in the comments section.

In my opinion, that we need to go out of our way to cast minorities in tv/film proves that we are not post-race. Do others agree?

The Washington Post team featured a series of opinion essays in their Outlook section the other week. The series was about Spring Cleaning - they compiled a list of ten things it's time for this country to toss.

The List:

• Academic Tenure
• The Term "Muslim World"
• The NAACP
• The Nobel Prize in Literature
• The Prom
• Larry Summers
• Television
• The Vice Presidency
• West Point
• The White House Press Corps

It's a fun read. One of those essays is about tossing the NAACP. It's humorous and makes some good points; the NAACP has grown somewhat archaic rather quickly. Author Jonetta Barrass suggests perhaps redefining and loosening the restrictions of "colored-people" to include more than just African Americans, but to scrap the organization altogether is to accept something I don't believe to be true yet, that we are "post-race."

I believe the NAACP still has a role in today's American society for the same reasons that I believe in having a Black History Month - for the same reasons I'm okay with affirmative action - for the same reasons I think a black Disney princess is not just a nice idea, but a necessary one - and similarly, because I believe America didn't just vote in a dark-skinned President, it needed one.

In the era of the Obama, black Americans will be in the spotlight more than any other time since the Civil Rights Movement. Let's not get ahead of ourselves though; progress does not mean instant success. We're not post-race yet, but at least we're getting closer.