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Abstract:
President Obama's election has been termed "historic." Dominant discourse holds that Obama's election proved the end of racism. However, an alternate view is possible. Using the lens of Critical Race Theory and the voices of 57 adults, we interrogate the possibility that Obama's election reveals less about the end of racism and more about the public's view of racism as a changing construct. Two competing themes emerged: the permanence of racism in U.S. society as well Obama's election signaling the end of racism. A third theme, cognitive dissonance, grows directly out of these competing ideas. The current dissonance may be resolved by entering a post-racial period; however, we argue that continued inequities reveal this to be rhetoric rather than reality.
Keywords: Critical Race Theory, race; racism; cognitive dissonance
Barack Obama's election to become the 44th president of the United States of America has been termed "historic" by a vast number of news outlets and political pundits. Whether made explicit by alluding to President Obama as the "first African American president" (Calmes & Thee, 2008; Fitzgerald, 2008; Kiely, 2008) or through vague mentions of the election as a "historic election" (McCain, 2008), there has been an emphasis on the meaning of the election of an African American to the nation's highest office. The dominant discourse, as represented by the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal or Rudy Giuliani, holds that Obama's election proved that "we can put to rest the myth of racism as a barrier to achievement in this splendid country" (President-Elect Obama, 2008) or that "we've moved beyond. . . the whole idea of race and racial separation and unfairness" (Giuliani, 2008, as cited in Wise, 2009). However, an alternate view of his election is possible. Using the lens of critical race theory, we interrogate the possibility that Obama's election reveals less about the end of racism and more about the public's view of racism as a changing construct.
Critical race theory (CRT) is a theoretical framework that grew out of legal studies, particularly influenced by the work of Derrick Bell and other scholars, in the mid-1990s. CRT in the legal field influenced the thinking of educational scholars such as Gloria Ladson-Billings and Williams Tate, leading to the use of CRT...