A Post-Race Society?

When Obama was elected America’s first African-American President, many people hopefully suggested that we were moving into a post-race society.

This new societal frontier, according to NPR commentator Daniel Schorr, would be “an era where civil rights veterans of the past century are assigned to history and Americans begin to make race-free judgments on who should lead them.”

And many educational and social justice advocates certainly hoped that this was – or soon would be -- true.

Yet, in many ways, 2010 was not a year that we moved beyond race, but one where we seemed to endure one race-related political firestorm after another.

From Harry Reid to Haley Barbour, a number of politicians on both sides of the political aisle have made headlines this year for their less than enlightened comments about race and race relations in America.

Clearly, we as a country – and as individuals – have not figured out how to have an honest, intelligent conversation about race, its implications and why it matters.

In many ways, 2010 was the year we got it wrong. But this year, we will all have new opportunities for discourse – whether those conversations happen in the public arena or in our own homes, schools and communities.

How can we do more to get it right, so that at the end of 2011, we can look back and feel good about where we have been – both as a society and as individuals? What role should educational and social justice advocates play? What do we do to move forward?