I'd agree that progress has been made. And now that the barrier's been broken, it'll be that much easier for the next aspiring president who lacks the traditional advantage that comes with being a straight white male.

But I think the reality is that most people of colour still face systemic racism. While this will certainly help that fight, it doesn't magically eliminate racism overnight.

Barack and Michelle Obama are both Harvard-educated lawyers who've consequently managed to accumulate significant wealth -- but not every African American is so lucky. Many still live in communities stricken with poverty and crime; many still face an educational system that needs to be massively reorganized; many still live in states that voted for McCain on Tuesday.

And throughout the election campaign, we still saw race-based attacks on Obama -- the only difference being that because even the outright racists knew perfectly well that calling him an unfit president because of his skin colour wasn't going to fly, they coded it instead in concerns about his religion, his birthplace, his purported associations with counterculture radicals. We saw dominionist Christians whispering about whether he's the Antichrist. We saw people calling undue attention to the fact that his middle name happens to be Hussein. We saw at least one Republican politician in the Deep South call him "uppity"; we saw Ralph Nader call him "Uncle Tom". We saw people call attention to the insignificant fact that his surname happens to be only one letter different from "Osama". We saw a young woman invent a story about being assaulted by a big beefy black dude because she had a McCain sticker on her car. We saw ludicrous stories about Black Panthers -- because there are so many of those around in 2008 (*eyeroll*) -- threatening white voters. We saw unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud swirling around black voter registration efforts.

While it was heartening to see that a majority of voters repudiated those tactics, the fact remains that a lot of voters were still swayed by them, and a lot of politicians still thought they were acceptable in the first place.

Yes, progress has been made. A barrier has been shattered. The psychological benefit to people of colour in knowing that they really can now aspire to even the highest office in the land can't be underestimated. And that's all amazing and beautiful and long overdue.

But there does still exist the very real danger that people will point to Obama and claim that racism doesn't exist at all anymore, that America no longer need do anything to help the millions of African Americans who haven't been as fortunate. The danger exists that he'll unwittingly become the metaphorical rug under which people sweep the fact that racism is still a problem.

And as a wiser person than me said recently, we'll know that race has really been overcome when a black person doesn't have to be as compelling and exceptional as Obama to make it, but can still get on the ticket while being as mediocre, or even as woefully unfit for office, as a George W. Bush or Sarah Palin.

[ 06 November 2008: Message edited by: asterix ]