Some conservative and libertarian pundits, white and black and other, claim that Obama’s inauguration proves we are in a post-racial America. But they would have claimed that if McCain won too.
The inauguration isn’t the full realization of Martin Luther King’s dream, but it’s a foretaste of the fully realized dream. Everyone’s worst friend Ann Coulter railed the other day about how people such as the Obamas act like victims by emphasizing their blackness and not their whiteness; what irked me was how a relatively sane local radio host agreed with her — as if Obama could easily pass himself off as white.
Yes, the elephant is still in the room, but it doesn’t take up as much space as it did before. It’s a nice step forward, but let’s keep moving.