Post-Racial Fight Club

Honestly, if I read one more article or blog about how Obama doesn’t mean the end of racism, but is in fact, still, very important for black people, I think my head might split into two personalities, and my black side will wrestle my white side to the death.  This piece in Prospect explores the varying arguments capably, but it just feels so passive-aggressive and redundant. It’s like, ok, I get it, NOW WHAT? I think the biggest ingredient missing from these stews of post-racial analysis are white people; this Post-Racial Identity crisis is not so much about Black identity as much as it is about White identity being scaled back down to size, thereby allowing everyone else to look a little more important. Perhape even more than the Obama t-shirts we see everywhere, the book/blog Stuff White People Like is the prominent post-racial avatar that signals change is underway. After all, we’re somewhat versed in Black identity politics, hence Obama putting on his du-rag for a campaign speech.  But White people have long been able to lump their particular sensibilities under the broad label of "mainstream" or "american". This was always best represnted by the position of President, leader of the free world etc, and presumably white bred, white educated, etc. etc. Now it’s different. Now we know the first family doles out dap, and may quote hip hop lyrics.  Good times.  So, not wanting to be passive and redundant, it seems the only step in further understanding what matters in the world now, is to start a Post-Racial Fight Club. So here we go: Welcome to Post-Racial Fight Club. The first rule of Post-Racial Fight Club is you must talk about Post-Racial Club, A LOT! The second rule of Post-Racial Fight Club is you must talk about Post-Racial Fight club some more! See, when you use the term "post-racial" you can’t help but seem smart and aware and progressive. Go ahead, say it to someone who went to college…. doesn’t it feel good?  DOn’t you feel better about yourself?  I know I do. So next party, make sure you bring it up, especially if any members of the Multi-Culti are in attendance.  The third rule of Post-Racial Fight Club is if someone says "stop, you don’t understand their people’s struggle" and points to an historical tragedy where you can see the legacy of it still in effect today, the fight is over. This means white people are the only people who can’t stop the fight. But make sure you’re not confusing a white person with a Jewish person.  Please, please, don’t do that. The 4th rule of Post-Racial Fight Club: Only two cultures/ethnicities to a fight.  You can’t have Asians fighting Blacks, fighting hispanic-jews at the same time.  Way too confusing.  We’re looking at Latin vs. White, Black vs. White, Native American vs. White.  etc.  The 5th rule of Post-Racial Fight Club is one fight at a time.  Getting a Black president, that’s a singular battle.  Don’t conflate it with fixing education, or giving vouchers to boys that live in the projects, or trying to figure out why Sarah Silverman is popular (hint: why is Sarah Palin popular? now make it a little more edgy/offensive.).  These battles may relate to each other, but you can only fight one at a time. The 6th rule is no shorts, no shoes.  Actually, uh, I’m aping this post based on the original cinematic version of Fight Club, and shoes and shirts are probably not a problem for our particular post-racial circumstances.  Plus, taking off your shirt and footwear smells of an ignorant and/or entitled white person sensibility, where you don’t care how much of your nasty sweat you get on a person.  SO please, feel free to wear a shirt and some shoes, especially if hygiene is an issue  The 7th rule is that fights will go as long as needed.  We need winners and losers.  Obama talks unity, but guess what, he can do that because he’s also the winner and gracious winners like to keep it humble.  But make no mistake, if he would have lost, the post-racial articles would not be nearly as compelling. The old white dude got knocked the f out, and we needed to see that to know it was possible. It doesn’tm ean he’s useless, but we need winners and losers to align our principles/morals/ethics properly.  The 8th rule of Post-Racial Fight Club: If you’re caucasian, and this is your first time to Post-Racial Fight Club, YOU HAVE TO FIGHT.  (that means no passive, redundant articles about what "post-racial" means.  it means you have to fight.) Good luck.