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'Post-Racial' Proclamations Fizzle Fast

Gates incident, rise of birthers indicate issue's persistence

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 7, 2009 12:03 PM CDT

(Newser) – Barack Obama’s election was supposed to be a healing moment, proof that we’re in a post-racial America. “Didn’t last very long,” writes Roger Simon of Politico. Today America seems as racially divided as ever. Exhibit A: the birthers, who say Obama’s “an alien who successfully hid himself for years.” Exhibit B: The Henry Louis Gates incident, which culminated in Glenn Beck calling Obama a racist.

How did things go so wrong so fast? “They didn’t," Simon argues. "They may never have turned in the first place.” America elected a black president, but white America didn’t vote for him: Obama lost the white vote 55% to 43%. No Democrat has won the white vote since Lyndon Johnson. It’d be absurd to say those votes were all based on race, “but it also may be absurd to say we are living in a post-racial America.”

President Barack Obama speaks at a rally for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds in McLean, Va., Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009.
President Barack Obama speaks at a rally for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds in McLean, Va., Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009.   (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., speaks during the Martha's Vineyard book festival in Chilmark, Mass., Sunday morning, Aug. 2, 2009.
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., speaks during the Martha's Vineyard book festival in Chilmark, Mass., Sunday morning, Aug. 2, 2009.   (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
Barack Obama and Joe Biden  have a beer with Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley in the Rose Garden of The White House, July 30, 2009.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden have a beer with Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley in the Rose Garden of The White House, July 30, 2009.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 23 comments
youngblood
Aug 9, 2009 2:06 AM CDT
Hey Serenity for you saying you don't want to come across like the grammar/ spelling police well, you sure are acting like that exactly. Faken if you have read other peoples post here stand for fu*king and as I look at your postings I see some faken SELLING MISTAKES, oh I'm sorry Serenity, spelling mistakes.. And your postings to me ARE full of holier than thou attitude you should change your handle to Holier than thou or the grammar spelling police!
SilenceDogood
Aug 8, 2009 12:37 PM CDT
So we see Barack going to a black supremacy hate church for 20 plus years, we read passages of his books “I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race”, Barack wants to redistribute wealth by giving money to people that pay no taxes whatsoever and do this by taxing people that are paying too much. That is why many people believe Barack is a phoney.
NewserScooter
Aug 8, 2009 5:08 AM CDT
You do realize that corporations have human members? They are not aliens. Most Americans are invested in them. They have as much interest in the future of this country as anyone. Some of them are Right wing, some are Left wing. Corporations is us!

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