The meaning of Post-Racial America is defined as being a theoretical environment in the United States of America. This in an environment that is free from prejudice, discrimination, and racial preference. Post-Racial America was first mentioned in the New York Times in 1971, with the title of the article being Compact set up for ‘post racial’ South. This article was about how population increase, industrial development, and economic fluctuations in the south will be more concerning than race relations. Years, later after Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, this theory came back into play as many Americans thought his presidency was a start to a post-racial society in America. Lou, a radio host, brought this theory up on his radio show during Barack’s presidential race, l, say he is post-racial by all appearances. You know I forgot he was Black tonight for an hour. In theory, many people looking on the outside would think this logic would be of many Americans. Based on the many tabloids addressing Obama’s race and his wife’s appearance, white America’s relationship with minorities would never give light to the term post-racial America.
Years later, the alarming number of killings of unarmed African American men, the blatant racism by white women, coined the word “Karen”, systematic disfranchisement, and the scapegoating of Blacks would give way to disproving the theory of a post-racial America. The start of the highlight of the killing of Black men by police officers can be argued to have started in 2014 with the murder of Michael Brown. This case was an authoritative figure’s account of the problem against a black 18yr boy’s testimony on the situation. The officer who shot and killed Michael Brown twelve times was found not guilty. This was because there was no evidence as to if Michael’s. hands were up. Many situations similar to this started to become more common. The cases of Laquan McDonald, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, and George Floyd are the names of victims killed by police officers over the color of their skin. In addition to this “war on Black people,” many white women were filmed harassing Black people and later calling the cops on them over trivial things. One example was the situation with Amy Cooper calling the cops on a Black man for bird watching. In the video, you can see her on the phone with the police while holding her dog by the neck, choking it.
The repercussions of white American crimes on Black people are very minimal. Many police officers don’t serve time in jail for clearly killing these Black men. Usually, they get suspended with pay while benefiting only a few weeks in prison if they do. Months after the hype goes down about the case, they go back to work like nothing ever happens. Many of these “Karens” get fired from their jobs, but if not, the worst thing that can happen is them going viral over their racist ways. So, the question is, will post-racial America ever exist? Many companies have started the conversation and initiatives to combat racism. We know this as removing the racist propaganda from products like Aunt Jemima, Dr. Suess changing the characters in their books, the housing market renaming a master room to the name of a primary room. These are great, but we need to take it a step further by tearing the effects of colonialism in the police system. In white-dominated corporations, the systematic disenfranchise. Only then will we live in a post-racial environment in the United States of America.
Malik is an upcoming graduate writer who loves to talk about people of color worldwide.