The term “post-racial” was first popularized as it became a staple of the 2008 presidential election--it was a soundbite on repeat the entire campaign trail, and became even more associated with Barack Obama after his landslide victory. Unfortunately, the concept of a post racial America is as as tantalizing as it is dangerous. For the white masses looking for a quick fix for their guilt over their inherited privileges, to politicians seeking to promote “color blind” policies that ignore institutionalized racism, claims of a post-racial nation can be incredibly appealing.

Ultimately, post-racialism is a misguided fantasy, one that discredits the oppression and injustices faced by people of color. In order to fully understand the dangerous implications of the post-racial ideology and its influence through visual culture, it is essential to examine the intentions and power dynamics behind America’s early normalization of racism, as well as the origins of racism itself. Only when people reflect on the establishment of the race-based hierarchy that exists in America can they understand why the post-racial ideology is so fundamentally corrupt.

In the early periods of European colonization, interactions between the conquerors and native peoples of different continents had an immediate power dynamic--but not one based around the concept of race. In fact, as presented in The Idea of Race, it was not until 1684 with Francois Bernier’s “A New Division of the Earth” that the term ‘race’ was even used to describe different human characteristics. Only one hundred years later, Immanuel Kant had developed a precise categorization of humankind into four races, describing the white race as having the perfect mixture of internal fluids, “demonstrating both the perfect mixture of these juices and the strength of this human stock in comparison to the others.” In years following these publications, what was once a curious explorer’s pretentious categorization of different peoples transformed into a strict and “scientific” hierarchy of human power and worth. In the Americas, descriptive charts labeling the races and their mixed children became popular, such as “Las Castas” (Anonymous), printed in the 18th century. This chart shows sixteen couples and families, their races labeled neatly below them, and their attributing economic and social roles clearly depicted as well. This style of chart set the precedent for the visual displays of racism that would become popularized in the following years--visual media provided a clear, effective way for white elites to enforce racism (and to later justify the slave trade).

A century later, the fascination over racial categorization became so fervent that new practices of “craniology” and other pseudo-sciences became extremely popular. As described by Michael Harris in Colored Pictures: Race and Visual Representation, “Given the transparency and naturalization of whiteness, it seemed consistent to have the social sciences function in ways that were compliant with the aims of...human differences.” Instead of simply depicting different races, new ‘scientific’ charts emerged that aimed to prove the shared lineage of monkeys and apes with African people who lacked the idolized Greek and Roman features of antiquity. In Petrus Camper’s “The Evolution of Man”, these standards are clearly depicted; people lacking the flat, vertical profile of romanticized Greek features were not just considered undesirable, but were literally associated with a lesser evolutionary development, and a commonality with apes. This had far-reaching implications for the future of American society--these early established stereotypes of bruteness, stupidity, and lack of civility became slowly but surely ingrained into the social hierarchy. In these types of charts, we can see the origins of what will later become institutionalized racism in the United States, existing long after the Civil War, the abolishment of Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights movement.

This history must be taken into consideration when discussing the origins and meaning of post-racialism. Both racism and post-racialism are white inventions, and they both have destructive and deluded repercussions. Just as racism was devised by white people in order to enforce and justify their economic, social, physical, and mental superiority over all other peoples, post-racialism was created by the white media to discredit injustices faced by people of color and to alleviate the guilt they feel for their privilege. Like racism, post-racialism has no direct effect on white people, nor does it define “whiteness” or acknowledge its normalization in society. Instead, white people continue to enjoy their consistent privilege and unspoken superiority while developing and changing the terms and definitions with which they use to define people of color.  

According to the Oxford Dictionary, ‘post-racialism’ is defined as “denoting or relating to a period or society in which racial prejudice and discrimination no longer exist.” The use of this term was constant during the inauguration ceremony of Barack Obama in 2008--reporters from the left and the right loved to use this phrase to describe the historic event. Even Shepard Fairey’s portrait of Obama for his Time Magazine “Person of the Year” cover echoed the post-racial rhetoric. The caption beneath the iconic red, white and blue drawing says, “In one of the craziest elections in American history, Barack Obama overcame a lack of experience, a funny name, two candidates who are political institutions and the racial divide to become the 44th President of the United States.” Perhaps this sentiment was delivered with good intention; maybe they hoped that we somehow could be post-racial, that Obama’s election could erase centuries of inequality, or that this was the first step towards a race-free and equal society. But to claim that the election of a black president created a society in “which racial prejudice and discrimination no longer exist” is more than ludacris, is is dangerous. The post-racial message ignores the very real cases of both institutionalized and direct acts of racism across the U.S., such as discriminatory incarceration rates, wage and income inequality, and police violence and brutality. None of these issues affect white people, but when they promote post-racial ideologies through mainstream culture, they are allowing--and even encouraging--people to turn a blind eye towards the racism people of color experience every day.