McWhorter: How the Obama Generation Will Conceptualize Race

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NY Magazine

ObamaKids
And the 10-year-olds shall lead us.

* By John McWhorter
* Published Aug 10, 2008

Obama gives a deft, affectionate speech calling on more black men to help raise their kids, and Jesse Jackson muses over removing his gonads. Obama gives a policy speech in Florida and gets shouted down by black-nationalist hecklers waiting for him to put white America’s feet to the fire. We’re going to see more of this between now and November. For all of the excitement in the black community over Obama’s candidacy, certain blacks have no interest in getting past race, and they have decided that if they are going to support Obama, then he better not either.

In fact, to this mind-set, the possibility of America’s having its first black president is a cause for worry as much as jubilation— a distraction from what they see as the implacable institutional racism that permeates American life. Already, various black writers are fretting that an Obama win would lead whites to assume that any black person could be as successful as he with a mere upward pull upon the proverbial bootstraps.

It is easy to suppose that the implications of an Obama presidency for how far we’ve come and how close we are to a post-racial future are mere magazine-cover rhetoric. But if Obama becomes president, there will be a shift in the conception of race in this country that neither side in the culture wars can control. It’s all about youth. Think about it. If Obama is elected to two terms, an entire generation of 10-year-olds will come of age having been barely aware of anyone other than a black man in the White House.

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