In the struggle against racism, we haven't overcome yet

If a visitor from the first half of the 20th century were plunked down in America today, he'd find, among other things, that drinking fountains in the South are no longer segregated, black women in the workforce are no longer overwhelmingly maids and baby-sitters, and interracial marriage is no longer against the law as it was in 30 states in 1950. When he figured out how to use a remote control and managed to get his TV tuned to CNN and saw the ubiquitous image of the country's new president, he'd no doubt collapse in shock.

The United States has undergone a profound and remarkable transformation -- but what exactly does it mean? To some Americans, it means that today, 145 years after the abolition of slavery, we can finally check race relations off the list and move our focus to the other pressing problems that face the country. Others say that's ridiculous and that, Obama or no Obama, the work of creating a truly egalitarian, nondiscriminatory society remains far from finished.

In its just-concluded session, the U.S. Supreme Court decided two major cases that touched on this fundamental disagreement -- an employment discrimination case from New Haven, Conn., and a voting rights case from Austin, Texas. In each, the plaintiffs challenged the wisdom of policies that had been designed to help undo past discrimination.

In the New Haven case, a group of white firefighters who had taken a test for promotion to captain and lieutenant were challenging the city's decision to throw out the results because no black candidates were among the high scorers. Wasn't it time, the firefighters asked, to acknowledge that disadvantaging whites in the interest of blacks is unfair and unconstitutional? In the Austin case, a municipal water district argued that it shouldn't be required to "pre-clear" even the simplest changes in local voting rules with the federal government just because Texas, back when Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act first became law, had been part of the then-racist South. "The America that has elected Barack Obama as its first African American president is far different than when Section 5 was first enacted in 1965," the district argued.