Q: What can I do to be post-racial?
Your friend,
- Whitey (AKA, The Man)
Ty: Good question and an even better observation, Whitey.
I've been thinking a lot about race lately. What with that colored fellow running for president and all, it's been shoved in my face like a rolled-up newspaper when I piss on the rug. They call 'em the "post-racial" politicians; Corey Booker, Deval Patrick, Adrian Fenty, and, of course, Barack Obama. I just call them black dudes working the system. But, hey, post-racial it is.
Speaking of Barack, two Ivy League professors were discussing post-racism just last night on Bill Moyers Journal; Glenn Loury (Brown) and Orlando Patterson (Harvard - and my friend Rhiannon's father) were engaged in fascinating conversation about what it all means. What does it mean?
Perhaps Berkeley Rich sums it up best when we were bantering about the races coopting cultures. We got to the sub-subject of blacks coopting traditionally white things (nerdism, tennis, golf, etc.) and I volleyed, "Like the presidency." His reply:
"Like the presidency. I sense a return to golden times, my friend. Golden times. Even better than the boom boom times of the 1990's.Or not. It is just like that.
Decades from now, we will look back on the next five years as enormously transformative.
Or not. It's like that."
What can you do to be post-racial, Whitey? Nothing. You're already post racial. By posing the question and self-deprecatingly referring to yourself as "Whitey" you've already ascended race. Race is pretty much over. Race? That's yesterday's news. If you really want to do something, procreate with someone not of your race. The future is of cream and tan-colored children who will find something else to hate each other for.
Speaking of yesterday's news, see also: [clicky]
Just a guess,
-ty
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