Racism

So, I have wanted to post something about race for a while but was having difficulty for the longest time to find something. Ever since the Louisville conference last year when I participated in a conversation about kids in Atlanta talking about post-race issues, I have been trying to wrap my head around this idea or possibility of being post-race. Needless to say, some of my recent Star Trek viewing has kind of helped with this. But even though Star Trek: The Original Series featured the first interracial kiss on television, it turns America's issues with race in the present and turns that into inter-species issues of the future.

Anyways, last week when I was being a lazy house sitter enjoying my free time in a new place, I did something quite blasphemous. I watched Good Morning America rather than my traditional Today Show. I was ultimately happy with the experience though when I came across this wonderful segment on young people's perception of race in which Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts recreated a question-and-answer session they had ten years ago. I hope you all get a chance to watch the video. I wasn't able to embed it in this post because of ABC's lending rights.

My initial reaction was very positive. However, at a second glance, I thought it was interesting that the kids mentioned famous black figures in sports and media. I wonder if part of that is because of their exposure to them. It would be kind of difficult for a 10 year old to epitomize Cornel West, right? But I am very pleased to see that some things are maybe changing. I am not foolish enough to claim this as the end of race issues as some of my former DV classmates were, but if these kids' responses are any indication of a changing future, I think the forthcoming decades will be an interesting few to live through.