Stephens - POSTRACIAL AMERICA?: an interdisciplinary study

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The hardback edition of this book was previously cataloged by the Library of Congress as follows:

Names: Stephens, Vincent L., editor. | Stewart, Anthony, 1964- editor.

Title: Postracial America? : an interdisciplinary study / edited by Vincent

L. Stephens and Anthony Stewart.

Description: Lanham, Maryland : Bucknell University Press, 2017. | Series:

The Griot Project book series | Includes bibliographical references and

index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016035041 (print) | LCCN 2016045703 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Post-racialism--United States. | United States--Race

relations.

Classification: LCC E184.A1 P659 2017 (print) | LCC E184.A1 (ebook) | DDC

305.800973--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016035041

ISBN 9781611487817 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN 9781611487794 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN 9781611487800 (Electronic)

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

The thing that amuses me is thisall this current talk about a postracial America. Which kind of makes no sense when youbecause as soon as you utter postracial then youre already talking about a racial America. Anthropologists gave up on notions of racial difference in the beginning of the twentieth century, but the culture cant.

Postracial America? An Interdisciplinary Study is the result of a gathering of scholars at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, on November 9 and 10, 2012. The conference, A Post-Racial America? An Interdisciplinary Conversation, was an opportunity for a varied and engaging group to discuss some of the implications and resonances inherent in the expression postracial. The resulting collection would not have been possible without the tireless leadership of Carmen Gillespie, whose example of grace under immense pressure remains an inspiration. Rebecca Willoughby was essential to the smooth running of the conference, and did the initial editorial work in the process that became this book. Pamelia Dailey, Bucknell University Presss editorial associate, has kept the ship on course, even as it changed captains. And, of course, we thank the contributors to the collection, who made the conference important and generative, and whose articles here have much to say about a term whose own provenance must be scrutinized relentlessly.

I remember walking around the campus where I teach, Bucknell University, in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, on November 5, 2008, feeling as if something fundamental about the world, as I understand and inhabit it, had been irrevocably altered. My experiences that day, the morning after Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, seemed surreal. Having lived through the elections in 2000 and 2004, I had become disillusioned with and had lost faith in the ability of my country to hold a fair and honest election. Consequently, I had held out absolutely no hope or anticipation that Obama would actually be elected, no matter what the polls were reporting. So, the morning after the election, I felt both stunned and exhilarated. Of course, some of my response was grounded in my political convictions, but these feelings were also rooted in a place that was not ideological but personal.