"If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it out three inches, that is not progress. Even if you pull it all the way out, that is not progress. Progress is healing the wound, and America hasn't even begun to pull out the knife."

--El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X)

How is one able to conceptualize the idea of Post-Racialism in America? Looking at today, and the socio-political climate we are situated in, how can the American society begin to trace back the idea of Post-Race and apply it to our present moment? We are interested in examining how post-racial ideology has been constituted into the American consciousness, how visual forms function to promote these ideas, and how reproductions manifest across temporal spaces. Through the construction of the “post-racial body” and what that looks like, one can begin to analyze how the identity of these individuals are situated in contemporary American society.

Post-racial ideology became household terminology in the 21st century, promoting America’s diversity and its “overcoming” of centuries of racial oppression. While in reality, the idea of a post-race society bred the concept of colorblindness, and failed to recognize the institutionalized racism of American society, and how the racialization of bodies is embedded into the many aspects of society and culture.

While post-racial ideology does present a utopian idealization of what America could be and the type of societal relations that could be present, the history of systemic racism in America prevents this idea to take fruition and be a workable concept that is applicable to contemporary American society.