To some, Jose Vasconcelos and his work represented a step backwards from the resurgence of Hispanic culture in the 20th century. Dogged by claims of being considered speculative ethnography, Vasconcelos has been specifically targeted by critics for his acquiescence to Anglo-European standards of excellence. In his work, La Raza Cosmica expresses a favoritism aimed towards the Spanish rather than Anglo-Saxon imperialism, claiming that “Spanish colonization created and promoted mixed races whereas English settlers only mixed amongst their own race”.

    Borrowing from Anna Everett’s piece “Have We Become Postracial Yet?”, the election of President Barack Obama in 2008 represented a landmark historical moment in a country that more often than not finds itself mired in racial conflict. In President Obama’s election and subsequent years serving as Commander in Chief, his term offered a glimpse into what a post racial America would look like, from its troubled inception to a relatively stable equilibrium. While his first election would revolve around his racial past as a focal point, the resulting furor from the traditional conservative groups in the nation would be tempered by the soft-spoken, pragmatic, eloquent attitude President Obama came to adopt in the following years. Stressing the importance of cooperation and minimization of conflict for the sake of progress is a universal, transracial philosophy, one that fits well within Jose Vasconcelos’ concept of the “Cosmic Race”.

Despite this, however, President Obama’s terms was beset on all sides by American citizens, worried that lax racial tensions would disrupt the established racial hierarchy, effectively relinquishing power previously believed to be an inherent birthright. This brings to bear one of the most focal issues regarding why a post-racial utopia is so difficult to achieve: distribution of power. While the more liberal citizens of America may believe power is more fluid in nature, those raised in more insular communities have grown accustomed to standing in a position of power due to the color of their skin. For such people, a hierarchal system has delineated a rigid power structure that hardly budges against the passage of time. These such power structures have, through their development, assigned rigid roles for disparate racial groups, with limited amounts of power allotted to those below. Said insular communities, while present at both West and Eastern coasts, are clustered in the American Midwest by nature. Shrinking populations and low international immigration kept these communities largely homogenous and shut off from the cultural mixing occurring in more populated regions of the country. These communities are fertile ground for fomenting rigid racial hierarchies and proved to be the most vocal opponents to Obama’s presidency.

However, opponents to Obama’s presidency weren’t solely from external racial groups, and therein lies another significant barrier to the Post-Racial ideal. Even from within the African American community, Obama was seen as someone who didn’t line up with the perception of being totally African American. Being the child of an African American father and caucasian mother, Obama was omitted from prominent national African American advocacy groups since he was seen as someone who wasn’t “pure” African American.This reason, coupled with an upbringing that aligned more with caucasian sensibilities led to a disconnect between black voters and his incumbent influence. For the same reason, a great population barrier exists between members of this transracial “Cosmic Race”. Culture formation happens on a generational time scale and faces too many exterior pressures to develop endemically, thusly leading to a natural exclusion of transracial populations.

According to Vasconcelos, the fifth race is one made up of all of the known races at the time, the so-called “four racial trunks: the Black, the Indian, the Mongol, and the White”. Even equal representation  between these four groups will prove difficult, requiring a concerted relinquishing of cultural narrative and experience, unified in historical upbringing and preconceived notions. As noble as a post-racial America sounds like, one where every group finds the representation they believe they should allotted may prove impossible due to the entrenched racial dynamic currently in place over the nation as a whole. Even the most liberal and relaxed communities have unspoken rules for engaging with members of different races. Conscious effort to ignore racial difference is disingenuous to both interacting members and a blase approach can be seen as dismissive, the only hope for a post-racial mentality is a complete and comprehensive paradigm shift occurring on a short time scale, most likely within a single generation.