Re-post: The Root Explores Whether Obama Has Made the U.S. Postracial

On my About page, my first line reads... people say we live in a post-racial society with the election of Barack Obama as our first black President.I didn't agree with that statement when Obama was elected in 2008, and now, The Root, with it's July 30th posting of Jesse Washington's article from the Associated Press,  Has Obama Made the US Postracial?, is revisiting that question four years later, to see if Americans feel the matter of race has changed in our country.It seems some people think things have gotten better, some think it's gotten worse, some blame Obama for being anti-white, some blame Obama for not supporting the black community enough, some think at least we are talking about race more openly.What do you think? 

Has Obama Made the US Postracial?

• By: Jesse Washington | Posted: July 30, 2012 at 12:31 AM

(Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

As America approaches a new presidential election in November, Jesse Washington, national writer on race and ethnicity for the Associated Press, digs into the country's race relations. Are people singing in ethnic harmony now that we've had nearly four years with Obama, or are our racist skeletons emerging from the proverbial closets? According to Washington, people are more aware of our racial differences.

As the nation moves toward the multiracial future heralded by this son of an African father and white mother, the events of Obama's first term, and what people make of them, help trace the racial arc of his presidency.Shortly before the 2008 election, 56 percent of Americans surveyed by the Gallup organization said that race relations would improve if Obama were elected. One day after his victory, 70 percent said race relations would improve and only 10 percent predicted they would get worse.Just weeks after taking office, Obama said, "There was justifiable pride on the part of the country that we had taken a step to move us beyond some of the searing legacies of racial discrimination."Then he joked, "But that lasted about a day."

Read Jesse Washington's entire piece at theAssociated Press.The Root aims to foster and advance conversations about issues relevant to the black Diaspora by presenting a variety of opinions from all perspectives, whether or not those opinions are shared by our editorial staff.________SOURCE:  www.theroot.com, Has Obama Made The US Postracial?, Jesse Washington via the Associated Press, July 30, 2012