washpost today:The election of Barack Obama, who will become the first African American president when he is inaugurated Jan. 20, prompted a short-term burst of hateful incidents including racist graffiti, cross burnings and violence from New York to California, according to news reports and criminal indictments. On Wednesday, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn indicted three Staten Island men on hate crimes charges, alleging that they assaulted black residents "in retaliation for President-elect Barack Obama's election victory."
i think we are seeing a little burst of the concept of race in the face of its apparent decline or erasure. one thing that's worth saying: when there's no such thing as blackness anymore, something important will be lost, though something important will be gained, and the end of race would mark the end of a movement and a culture as well as of a burden and a nightmare. that's why jesse jackson, for example, is ambivalent about obama, not in the sense of being indifferent, but of being hyper-intense on both sides. but watch bobby rush at the blagojevich/burris news conference. or look what's happening in oakland etc, on both sides. perhaps race is twitching after its death. or perhaps it will now re-assert itself in scary and inspiring ways.