Craddock 1 Maura Craddock Dr. Roth-Burnnette UAEC 200 24 November 2012 Post-racial Election?

In 2008 when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States of America, the emotional reaction displayed by many people confused me. What was it about this man that moved people so deeply? It hadnt occurred to me that the reason people were so personally affected was that Obamas election was a long awaited vindication. Similarly, Franklin V.P. states that the election of Barack Obama is the product of the modern Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s (1). Because I grew up in an era when it was not normal to witness racism or to be segregated by law, I was unable to comprehend how great a victory this was for people who could still remember a time when it was thought impossible for an African American to be a post-racial president. Only recently did I come to think that it was not Obama himself who inspired the tears of happiness shed by so many, rather it was the realization of a society whose members acknowledge each other as intelligent human beings, and the pride that victory inspired in people after suffering as a group for so many decades. What was the significance of Obamas election? I now see Obamas election as an historical marker signifying how much America has evolved into a post-racist nation. In contrast with my thesis, Jonathan Okamura argues that the neo-conservative concept of post-racialism, which seeks to deny the significance of race in the United States in order to maintain the racial status quo of white dominance, differs from the more recent celebratory version according to

Craddock 2 which the election of Obama was heralded as a major breakthrough in Americas conflict-ridden history of race relations (134). The reactions of myself and other members in my generation suggests that we have come far enough as a society to transcend racism and break down the final social barriers. Because, watching Obama I only saw a man playing a political game, I argue that Obamas election is not in itself a victory for one racial group but a product of a change in mindset acquired gradually, and intensified in each new generation growing farther from the pain inflicted in the past. Some people think that Obamas election changed the individuals level of racism, but our country did not transform overnight. We are on the road to becoming a nation in which society recognizes the equality of all citizens.

Craddock 3 Works Cited

Franklin, V.P. Commentary: The Election of Barack Obama: The Debt Has Not Been Paid. Journal of African American History 94.1 (2009): 1. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. Okamura, Jonathan Y. Barack Obama as the post-racial candidate for a post-racial America: perspectives from Asian America and Hawaii Patterns of Prejudice 45.1/2 (2011): 134. Web. 26 Nov. 2012.