A lively group of intellectuals discussed the current state of race relations in America Monday.
"A Dream Fulfilled?: Barack Obama and the Prospects of a Post-Race America" was hosted by the Reginaldo Howard Memorial Scholars program, which provides scholarships to outstanding first-year students of African heritage. The panel was part of the program's annual "Reggie Day" and took place in the Bryan Center in front of an audience of approximately 50 students, faculty and staff.
The panel-which consisted of Lee Baker, dean of academic affairs of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Kerry Haynie, associate professor of political science, Ben Reese, vice president for institutional equity, Timothy Tyson, visiting professor at the School of Divinity and 9th Wonder, a hip-hop producer and artist-in-residence at North Carolina Central University-addressed a wide array of topics concerning race in America.
The main topic of discussion for the speakers was whether or not the election of Barack Obama-the nation's first black president-signaled the beginning of a post-racial society.
"If you conceptualize the issue of race in terms of ending one era and continuing in another, that logic doesn't resonate with me," Reese said. "I don't believe that the thing you dealt with in one era of history you don't have to continue to deal with it as time progresses."
Event organizers hoped that the discussion would engage issues concerning not just black and white relations, but race in society as a whole.
"We went through several questions asking: What is race? What is black? What do we mean when we say black? How do other races fit into the discussion? We wanted this post-racial conversation to cover a wide variety of subjects," said Treva Lindsey, a graduate student in the history department and a graduate assistant for the Reginaldo Howard Memorial Scholars program.
The panel largely agreed that America has not achieved post-racial status and that race still matters a great deal in American society.
"The short answer is that there will be no post-racial America anytime soon," Tyson said, citing disparities in educational achievement, socioeconomic status and incarceration rates as proof that there has been insufficient progress toward racial equality.
Tyson said these inequalities ensure that at least for another generation, there would be a continued need to focus on race and how it has shaped American history.
There was disagreement, however, among the panelists on the amount that society's views on race have changed as a result of the election. Though most of the speakers felt that the outcome showed a significant shift in racial attitudes, others questioned the level of change Obama's victory has symbolized.
"Barack Obama ran the same type of campaign any white Democrat would have ran," Haynie said, noting that Obama often distanced himself from black issues in order to appeal to a broader electorate. "The more you reach out to blacks, the more you lose white votes and I don't know if that is post-racial."
Haynie said Obama's desire to win black votes without being too closely associated with issues concerning the black electorate proved that the country is not fully beyond race.
Some panelists believed that the current economic crisis provides an opportunity for people to look past race and work together toward improving everyone's financial situation.
"I've had more conversations with 60 year-old white men at the gas station than ever before," Ninth Wonder said. "When gas is $4 a gallon, that hurts everybody."
Some students in the audience said they believed that their generation has evolved beyond many of the personal feelings of racism held by previous generations.
"I think the way people initially think about someone of a different race has changed," said freshman Jasmin Aldridge.
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