Prometheus 6

Media coverage of race in the campaign has been heavy to the point of being ridiculous, but it has also prompted many Americans -- at least those outside the media-political bubble of Washington -- to have more honest conversations about race among themselves and with themselves. This can't be bad....

The "Race doesn't matter" crowd would probably disagree....It would be more accurate, however, if they simply added "to me" at the end of the phrase: "Race doesn't matter to me."...

It's a profound sentiment that meets head-on the question of why race should matter at all. In principle it should not, and that's why the young people who don't believe it matters are so admirable. Imagine their mantra sweeping the country on Super Tuesday and riding a wave until Election Day.

But neither their collective energy nor a million continuous chants could make their mantra true. Their candidate is neither "post-racial" nor "race neutral" or "colorless." He has not transcended race: The matter of whether such a thing is even possible is a question for another day. He is just an extraordinary black man, but a black man nonetheless, who happens to be running for president. The young, white people who support him happen to love him regardless of his race, much as many black people love him because of it.

Race Matters. So Does Hope.
By Marjorie Valbrun
Saturday, February 2, 2008; A15

Let's be honest. Race does matter. Everyone knows it. Yes, in a perfect world it wouldn't matter, but ours is far from perfect, and the current American political climate is even more so.

Nevertheless, the recent images of college students, most of them white, chanting "Race doesn't matter" at Barack Obama campaign rallies have been heartwarming. The young people have embraced this mantra and buoyed their candidate's vote tallies in the primaries with earnest and youthful idealism. By doing so, they've signaled that they are looking beyond race and choosing a standard-bearer who can redefine and realign the country's political-racial landscape.

Admirable? Yes. Impressive? Absolutely. Moving? How could it not be? Racially transcendent? Not a chance.

These students have come of age at a time when American race relations are not the nuclear subject they were for their parents' generation. They have less rigid ideas about race and tend to have a more diverse collection of friends. They live at a time when the concept of biracial or multiracial identities is familiar. Caroline Kennedy said her three teenage children influenced her decision to endorse Barack Obama.

This is indeed an incredible moment, for young people and the nation. Yet many Americans of all stripes are struggling between buying into the notion that race is irrelevant and wanting to reject that notion outright. It's not really one of those well-on-the-one-hand-but-on-the-other-hand kinds of debates. This is America, after all. We have some serious racial baggage. We have a hard time reconciling ourselves to the past and sometimes behave as if it has no bearing on the future.

Now some people want to look to one solitary black man to just erase the so-called race problem. Only in a country of eternal optimists and perpetual revisionists could such contradictions coexist. Call it the I-Love-Obama-thus-racism-no-longer-exists phenomenon. If only things were that simple.