As I hope you are aware, there has been quite a bit of brou-ha-ha lately about race and racism and race-baiting and, um, race-lying in the news lately. And really, there's been quite a lot of it for the last year and a half.
I think I may have figured something out about all that recently. When Barack Obama was elected president, people were (ridiculously) talking about how it would usher in a "post-racial" era of U.S. history. Of course, that didn't happen.
What has happened instead, and what has proved to be distinctly upsetting to a huge swath of people, is that Barack Obama's position as our first black president has forced white Americans to become acutely aware of our Whiteness.
For many white Americans, this is the first time that has really happened. Part of the definition of Whiteness in this country is not having to be aware of it. A huge part of privilege is getting to pretend that you are "normal". "I'm just a person," people will insist.
Picking the centuries-old scab off racism in this country is going to require people becoming aware of Whiteness. But it's not a particularly pleasant process, as evidenced by all the sturm und drang Fox news and their allies have been stirring up since November 2008.
It will be interesting, though, to see what a few years of this does to race-consciousness in America. We can only pray that heightened awareness of Whiteness will not lead to increases in white supremacy activities for most people (though it already has for many). If I had to guess, I would say that it could be the humorists and satirists that will save us again.
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