No, We’re Not Past Race
By Jesse Singal - Nov 5th, 2008 at 4:03 pmPresident-Elect Obama’s getting some major love from heads of state and other important figures around the world.
Israeli President Shimon Peres, however, said something problematic:
I want to congratulate the newly-elected president: young, fresh, promising, representing a change and introducing change. The changes that I can mention — it is an opportunity to escape the present world crisis and enter into a new era of cooperation, of productive economy and of human solidarity. In a way, it is an end of racism. There is no longer any way that any white man can claim superiority, nor any black person feel discrimination. We are the same people, and this election is a great statement to that effect.
This is what some people were worried about: that an Obama victory would open the door to arguments that we’re past race, that it’s no longer an issue in the United States–which is obviously not true. It’s troubling that Peres would claim that there is “no longer any way… [a] black person [can] feel discrimination” based solely on the skin color of the incoming occupant of the White House.
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