Who Moved the Race Teleprompter?

Dimension: Race

A few news magazine programs featured the clip of the teleprompter that broke during one of President Obama's recent speeches. The question Vice President Biden posed months ago about what Obama would do without his teleprompter was finally answered--he continued with his message giving testimony to the fact that the origins of his message were in his mind and heart(crafted with a little help from some speech writers) and were not born out of a display device.

However, America seems to be without its race teleprompter since the election of Obama. In the 1950s and 1960s racism existed in all of its many forms and people were very clear on the status of race in America. In the 1990s progress had been made yet it remained clear that there was work to be done and many barriers yet to be removed. We had entered the door in many cases but there were only a few minorities at the table making decisions.

With the election of President Obama society removed the exclusion barrier--at least for men of color (for women of color and women in general the barrier still remains). Today, the status of race in America is more complex. We have new boundaries of the polarity--one end claims a post-racial society and at the other, an illusion that racism doesn't exist.

When the boundaries of the polarity were different with one end as a tolerant society and the other end being that racism exists, the boundaries were still in the racism camp. Today the boundaries are in the racism-free camp. That is a scary thing. With the former polarity there was collective understanding that racism existed.

The current "racism-free polarity" leaves black and Hispanic kids without a way to say that being excluded from a swim club is racist or black firefighters a way to make meaning of why all of them didn't pass a test (probability suggests that some had to have studied!). It gives permission to address the issue from only an individual perspective and not as a societal problem (study harder, pull yourself up from your bootstraps...). And it gives those who wish not to take responsibility an opportunity to deflect and blame society (I can't get a promotion [pass my class, get good grades, etc.} because I am black, Hispanic, native American, Asian...) In the post-racial society polarity, the voices are silent or inaudible when it comes to pointing out racism. In a post-racial society, at its best racism, does not exist, and at its worst, we are a tolerant society.

On July 16th, Obama addressed the NAACP at the Centennial Convention in New York city. He did not talk about a post-racial society and noted that racism exists today and structural inequality was a root cause. At the same time he put out a strong message for individual responsibility in determining one's destiny. We may have lost the collective teleprompter on race that acts a barometer for how one should act and what one should think but we can all pay close attention to the teleprompter within us that doesn't give any excuse for being less than who we are as a people and as a nation.