Welcome to Post-Racial America, the Land of Pink Elephants and Sugar Plum Fairies

What an exciting week.

Not only are we being led by a dynamic, eloquent and passionate leader, but he’s black.  Obama’s presidency is a testament to him, to all African Americans, and to everyone in this nation, regardless of their race. 

The first black president of the United States.

Now, that we have that out of the way.  Can we discuss this term “post racial America”?  Because it’s starting to get on my nerves.

First, it conveys a false sense of total accomplishment.  Notice I wrote “total” accomplishment.  I would not be so cynical to write that President Barack Hussein Obama is not a great accomplishment in terms of American race relations.  Of course, it is.

But the election of Barack Obama, my friends, has not erased racism from the American landscape.  As much as I hate to be the Debbie Downer in this situation, I will do it for the sake of honesty and truth.

We do NOT live in a post-racial America.

Referring to ourselves as a post-racial America implies a sad sense of falseness and delusional mindset.

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs that are decrying individuals who continue to talk about race or racism as people who are unwilling to let go of this nation’s racist past.  I read the words “get over it” a lot.  Or, even better, “let’s move on.”

In all the nations that have ever existed on this planet, I challenge you to find a single instance of a people who have “gotten over it” when faced with a past of oppression, genocide, violence and rape.   Victims of abuse do not “get over it.”

They may incorporate their pain into who they are.  They may use that pain to accomplish more, to become better, to become stronger.  The abuse that they have endured, though, becomes part of them forever.  They decide whether they will make tragedy a furnace which strengthens them or an excuse for their own personal failures.

But they don’t forget.  And nor should they.

“Get over it.”

No American who takes their citizenship seriously should “get over it.”   In terms of “moving on,” we will never do that until we accept the full extent to which racism permeates our culture.

We are all victims in our own ways. (Part of the reason for denial, I think, stems from the fact that Americans hate being perceived as victims.  We’re the heroes.  The ones that save the day.  Never the “sad, pathetic victims.”)

We are victimized by American racism.  The descendants of a kidnapped people, the descendants of their kidnappers, the descendants of people who were not remotely wealthy enough to profit from any of this pain, the descendants of people who were not anywhere near North America when all this human suffering was happening…  We are all victimized by this human tragedy, and victims should never forget.

There are two ways that racism can victimize you.  The first is obvious.  You’re black, brown, white, purple, so you can’t go here, say this, or do that. Pretty straightforward.

The other way that we might be victimized by racism is by pretending that it doesn’t exist.  That it’s not part of the landscape anymore.  That anyone who brings up racism is harping on the past and refuses to get over it.

Denial victimizes us by preventing us from being who we should be: advocates for social justice, defenders of the oppressed, and protectors of the pure ideals that form the foundation our great democracy.

Barack Obama, by himself, can’t cure cancer, fix the economy, save the whales, stop global warming or bring “Angel” and “Buffy” back to prime time.  And his inauguration sure as hell didn’t “cure” racism.

Everyone scolding those of us who are willing to face the realities of this world, the one where prejudice and racism still exist, would do well to remember that.