View Obama's Victory Speech

What will Obama's presidency mean for race in America?

This is a conversation that has been going on since the beginning of the Obama campaign. We now have the occasion to reflect seriously on both the challenges and promises of Obama's election when it comes to the persistent reality of race and racism in America. Racism is still, of course, alive and well. But what the election does tell us is that the way we think about race in America has forever changed. Perhaps black folks won't be nearly as suspicious about whites, viewing them categorically as merely an extension of a racist past. Perhaps whites might be able, through the gifted leadership of Obama, to see black people as human, embodying the same dreams, hopes, and aspirations as them. Or perhaps, the demons of racism, fear and hatred will reappear, regroup, and react in more insidious ways, invoking the kind of white backlash not seen since the later years of the Civil Rights Movement during the rise of Black consciousness and youth rebellion. What do you think?

Obama's Presidency, American racism and foreign policy

I find it rather daunting that after centuries of racial turmoil in America, many mainstream politicians, religious leaders, and academics have yet to make critical connections between the brutal history of racism in this country and foreign policy impacting black and brown peoples of the world. Are we as Americans suffering from historical amnesia? Have we forgotten the genocide of Native Americans, the slave trade, Hiroshama and Nagisaki, segregation, lynching, and most recently the atrocities of a post-hurricane Katrinia dibocle? Obama presidency holds exciting possibilities precisely because he may bring sensitivities about race and the ways in which racial attitudes are infused in the formation of policies and practices. Even with the greatness of Abraham Lincoln, America has never experienced this kind of leadership. We do not yet know how Obama will engage policy with an awareness of race and racism. We do hope, that as an African American, with an African wife and African American children, he will bring to his leadership an awareness of how race has shaped the U.S. policy agenda. His pragmatic approach is very appealing and I think will be well received. It will also, perhaps, lead to new conversations about policies that are grounded not in white supremacist of nationalistic ideologies, but in sound thinking and wisdom.