Obama, Education Policy, and the Allure of a Post Race America America

While the idea of a Post Race America is alluring and certainly desirable, as a school law attorney and professor in graduate education, the use of this language concerns me. This is because the notion of a Post Race America has also been used by many to undermine education law enacted to overcome the vestiges of years of institutional racial discrimination. Many opponents of desegregation and affirmative action, for example, have used some articulation of a Post Race America to support their arguments against important measures to ensure equality in public education. Slavery and segregation no longer matter they say and we who are fighting for racial equality are actually perpetuating racial discrimination by continuing to live in a world that has long past.