Race still matters

Iam shocked by the commentary on the prominence of race as a theme in the Democratic Party primaries. Shocked not because race is a theme but because so many in the media seem to think that race would not be or should not be mentioned. It is as if we think that not speaking about race is the equivalent of making progress on race issues.

The only thing more amusing than the use of a new term, "post-racial," to describe the positive response to Barack Obama's campaign is the lamentation at the loss of "post-raciality."

This entire narrative is a media-concocted fiction. America is decidedly not "post-racial." One need only observe the prosecution of the Duke University lacrosse team or the Jena Six, the debate about race-based affirmative action and the atrocity that was and is Hurricane Katrina to know that racial issues are still with us. The desire that the subject of race be set aside in the current "post-racial" political conversation shows that society is unwilling to openly face its worst fear: Not only could a black man ably lead this nation, but the mere fact of a black president would force both the majority and minority populations to reset our parameters for normality.

Some (perhaps many) white Americans don't think it's normal for a black person to be successful; their stereotypes can't accommodate the fact of a black person having gone to Harvard and achieved some prominence. As an African American writer, I am reminded of this each time I finish a reading, when without fail a white person overzealously praises my speaking ability. The most recent version of this was a 15-year-old high school student who was amazed that I had actually attended college.

Also telling is Obama's initial lack of support in the black community, which may have been a result of an African American unwillingness to see him as representative of traditional (very different from stereotypical) black America. The majority of Americans are comfortable accepting successful blacks in stereotypically prescribed fields such as entertainment or sports, where blacks are expected to be physically and emotionally strong and yet largely politically mute. When a black person becomes successful in another field, he or she becomes a "surprise" to the majority and is subsequently stripped of color.