CHICAGO — The raucous scene at President Obama’s election night victory party was a full-throated display of exuberant diversity as supporters from across the racial spectrum danced, cheered, and celebrated until well into the morning.
But whether Obama has moved the country toward greater racial harmony — a “post-racial” society in substance as well as in symbol — might not be answered until long after his unprecedented presidency has ended.
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There is a strong amount of the racism that this article decries, contained within the article itself. Why is the Boston Globe so hung up on Black skin color when it comes to discussions of "diversity"? The paper acts as if there is something of a mortal sin caliber only when a skin color is the topic. Bias against persons who use certain languages, who have certain facial characteristics or skin tones, or are from nations with most of their populations considered caucasian are as bad as prejudice against persons of African descent. And are persons with black skin whose heritage is South Pacific Islander or Australian aborigine included in these sudden - and all too frequent - Globe findings? The Globe is trying to say that the sanctified, almost sainted, Barry the O, the President of this nation, was supposed to solve a societal problem thousands of years in the making. Ask Barry the O about his own family's dealings with Arabs in Kenya in past centuries - never mind that his family may be Islamic believers. The point is that one newspaper reporter is trying to join idealism of pre-election Party members in demanding that an entire national population suddenly and totally shift its cultural heritage. Does this demand by this reporter apply to persons with Black skin shifting their biases against Caucasians and persons of mixed race?
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Sadly, you are emblematic of the problem.
What percentage of blacks harbor negative perceptions of whites? A good reporter would have that information.
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Very perceptive and insightful post. If I was a descendent of a person brought here as a slave and then relegated to 2nd class status until the 1960s (at best), I would have an entirely favorable perception of white people. Why don't people of color feel the way I would if I was a person of color? Thanks for sharing.
lesvalseuses and mean_willy (below) accuse me of being a part of a problem that this Globe article supposedly addresses. I would beg both their pardons and ask them to re-read what I wrote - a protest of the Boston Globe's singling out one racial group as experiencing the most serious racisim in a supposedly not diverse-enough society. The Globe does not pick out American Indians or Chinese Americans or Irish Americans or Hispanic/Latino Americans. The Globe writer limits his protest to Americans of African descent. Never mind that American Indians were sold, dislanded, brutalized, enslaved, forced on long death marches or that Chinese worked with Irish immigrants to build railroads in terrible working conditions. Historic examples are huge for each of these groups. Assaults/robberies against Korean-American merchants have been reported in urban ghettos across the nation, many on the West Coast. lesvalseuses claimed that I was writing to protest a black Muslim in the White House. In reply to such, I can only say that he/she is terribly wrong and that lesvalseuses needs new glasses and to get a harness on his own personal version of racism. mean_willy's comment is far less forceful and insulting than lesvalseuses', but no less wrong.