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November 14, 2008

Musings on race in a post-race America

A monthly column for the PC(USA) by the General Assembly moderator

by the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow
Moderator of the 218th PC(USA) General Assembly (2008)

SAN FRANCISCO — When “Barack Obama has been elected President of the United States of America” rang out, I wept, cheered, and prayed. Our world has changed. Our children’s view of “American” will never be the same — here or around the world.

While Obama is not just a person of racial designation, we must not underestimate the symbolic nature and corresponding power of having a person of color as president.

The memories of my grandparents’ struggle through injustice in this country came flooding back. My Filipino grandmother in Alabama struggled with where to sit on the bus because no one knew if she was white or black.

Miscegenation laws were repealed just decades ago that would have prohibited my White wife from marrying this Filipino man. At least a few layers of historical injustice were peeled back through this election to reveal a reality of pure joy. I felt, if just for a moment, a promise was
fulfilled.

However, let us not be naive and think this election has made us a post-race culture and world. We have a long way to go before we have solved racism.

The biggest concern I have is the idea that this generation is somehow so past race that we no longer need institutional safeguards against systematic and institutional injustice.

I strongly believe we would be foolish to claim success in defeating racism simply because we have elected an African American president and/or all the generational assessments about race that have punctuated the political discourse.

At the same time, I don’t think this idea is totally off. I see glimpses of truth that hold the potential for changing the way we deal with issues of race.

Those glimpses include our flattening world and the increasing interactions between different ethnic groups; open source technology,
with the idea that the community will correct and police itself along the way; and changes in population percentages.

I hope we will embrace the opportunity and challenge to talk about and deal with issues of race in new ways, with new vernacular and new institutional approaches.

Live in hope.

Please join the many conversations taking place at Bruce’s Moderator blog.