Exemplary Black People

Exemplary black people are supposed to be the answer to centuries of anti-black sentiment that has permeated American society. They are proof that America has moved on from its racist past, and entered into a new era of postracialism. The assumption that exemplary black people mean America has been delivered from its racist sins, however, is faulty; if anything, exemplary black people have only served to enrage racists whites even more - they are the most visible face of the increasing lack of authoritative dominance white people have over the United States' society. To be sure, this does not mean that white people are not more powerful or that their racism doesn't have very real effects on people of color; what this does mean, however, is

He writes "If the purpose of racist ideas had always been to silence the antiracist resisters to racial discrimination, then the postracial line of attack may have been the most sophisticated silencer to date" (Kendi 791). The deception that postracial thinkers offered after Obama was elected, and continue to disseminate widely still, is that race itself has no effect on how people of color are treated in America; other personal qualities, like aggressiveness or a predisposition to stupidness, can affect how people of color are treated, but certainly not their race. Postracial ideologues also offer this hollow whammy: if a person of color is treated "differently" (see: treated sub-human) than a white person because of their race, it is not because the person who is treating them in such a manner is racist, but because that particular person of color is acting deviant from social norms. The person of color might be acting too "black" - or, in other words, uneducated, unintelligent, lazy, aggressive, and any other slew of adjectives that have been disproportionately applied to people of color. The racist person is, therefore, absolved of all guilt for their racist behaviors. In fact, to point out their racism would itself be "divisive and racist," because it is the people who seek to bring attention to racism, and not racists, who are, in postracial United States, racist (Kendi 791). If racism is not real, as postracial ideologues believe, then to bring it up is to rehash old subjects and reopen old wounds. It is damaging to talk about race in a postracial society because it only harks us back to the days when real racism existed, and that's a subject better left