"Post-Racial" America: The Vision, the Reality, and Origins
Post-racialism is simply broken down to mean that racial preference and discrimination no longer exist. Post-racial America is this theoretical society that is thought to have no racial prejudice. It is the goal to be liberated from this idea of “race”. The idea of post-racialism applies to all citizens as the concept is that race is no longer a consideration, so this means racism is non-existent. The election where Barack Obama became the President of our country, in the year 2008, is where the idea of post-racial America spread like wild-fire all over the news. The term was being used by news anchors everywhere to express this concept that America had come so far from its corrupt slavery days to put an African-American in office. The fact that one had to point this out as a success speaks volumes to the fact that the frequent use of the term post-racialism is very premature and inaccurate, rather it’s the dream society to be working toward.
The constitution of the United States of America was founded with the idea that in order to create this “more perfect union” we would follow certain principles, which included establishing justice, justice for all. The idea of post-racialism today paves the way to colorblind constitutional thinking, which makes the law a key architect in the historical patterns of racism in our society, and systematic oppression of particular racial groups. This draws the question of whether or not a post-racial society is even possible. In order for us to achieve what our country preaches it already has, equality, justice for all, we must look deep into our laws and the extensions of them. It is the way in which some laws are enforced that is highly discriminatory and project a social construct of race even further. We must begin to pull out the knife, because it is still very much in the back of the historically marginalized groups.
