The concept of a post-racial society entails complete equality, with freedom from racial preference, discrimination, and prejudice. What makes this concept possible is the aggregation of post-racial members. How would one distinguish someone as post-racial? Identifying the characteristics of a post-racial society assists in dictating what exactly it is to be a member of a post-racial America. Understanding the parameters of a post-racial America demonstrates characteristics of a member of this society: such as what they look like, what traits these members possess that characterizes them to be post-racial, and how they conduct themselves.

           The idea of post-racial America was portrayed as a reality as result of the election of Barack Obama in 2008, who seemed to expel what a post-racial America looked like: a society that was race neutral, and has no personal afflictions to a particular race or group.

    National Geographic painted a picture of what the average American would look like in the near future through photographs of individuals of mixed race, alluding to what post-racial America calls for: a conglomeration of identities. Those of mixed race are set as model members of post-racial America because they are assumed to embody identities of multiples races; they are expected to offer a middle ground between different races, or as in Obama’s case, remain neutral and have no particular loyalties. However, as demonstrated in Cherrie Moraga’s autobiographical essay La Guera, individuals of mixed race can feel they are shut out of both groups they are assumed be the middle ground of. The identity of a multiracial individual can be convoluted, but as National Geographic suggests, this multitude of identity embodies the characteristics of a post-racial American.