A Post-Racial Society? Your Toddler Would Beg to Differ

Gates incident, rise of birthers indicate issue's persistence

(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. More»

(NEWSER) - The suburban Philadelphia swim club at the center of a racism controversy will ask the day campers it disinvited to return, the local ABC affiliate reports. "We are very very sorry that this had to happen," the club president tells WPVI-TV. He had sparked the incident by saying the presence of the campers, who are mostly African American and Hispanic, changed the facility's "complexion" and "atmosphere." More»

Racial discrimination sends us back to the 1950s

(NEWSER) - A largely white suburban Philadelphia swim club’s barring of black and Latino campers was so backward “I thought I had fallen into a time warp,” writes Annette John-Hall in the Inquirer. Things like this happened in the 1950s—when singer Dorothy Dandridge booked a room in a Las Vegas hotel, the staff actually drained the pool—but “this isn't 1950s Las Vegas. It's 2009 Philly.” More»

Suburban pool rejects summer campers, cites 'complexion'

(NEWSER) - A Philadelphia summer camp says it may take legal action after a suburban swim club rejected its campers, the Inquirer reports. On their first visit to the pool, the children said they’d overheard other poolgoers complaining about black people frequenting the swim club; soon after, management refunded the $1,950 the camp had paid for weekly pool visits over the summer. A statement from the club president cited “concern” over the “complexion” of the club. More»

Instead of putting conflict behind us, Dem's crowd perceives insult just about everywhere

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama is allegedly helping America “transcend race,” Jonah Goldberg writes in the National Review, but if moving beyond race “would involve making race less of an issue,” why are Obama’s fervent supporters obsessed with bringing it up? One columnist sees racism in descriptions of the Democrat as “skinny"; the Kansas City Star’s editorial board sees it in those who call him “socialist.” More»