Lecture highlights progress toward a post-racial era

by Shanda Bradshaw | February 5, 2010 | Montana Kaimin

Historian Josef Sorett’s presentation Thursday night addressed the possibility that has occupied Americans’ minds since the election of President Barack Obama: living in a post-racial era.

That would mean that the country had moved beyond race. But Sorett, an interdisciplinary historian of religion in America, was quick to point out in his presentation, “Empire State of Mind,” that while the U.S. has made progress, race is still impossible to ignore.

“We have learned some things about how race has changed and evolved in the era of a black president,” Sorett said.

He gave the example of Tiger Woods and the shift in the public’s perception of him after his infidelities were revealed.

“Tiger was reduced to ‘that black man,’” Sorett said. “Which is persistent to racial language.”

He said that although we are not yet living in a post-racial era, the journey to where we are now can be seen through hip-hop music.

“Look at hip-hop as the soundtrack that ushered in this post-racial age,” said Sorett, who serves as an advisor to the African HipHop Research Project at Harvard University.

He said the title of his lecture comes from rapper Jay-Z’s song “Empire State of Mind,” which embodies the American dream. At this time in the U.S., Jay-Z can admit to starting as a crack dealer and eventually becoming a CEO, Sorett said in reference to the song’s lyrics.

Sorett said Jay-Z’s story shows that the possibilities are limitless, but that his dreams were made possible only in light of the Civil Rights Movement.

He said that it’s impossible to think of the Civil Rights Movement and civil rights politics without thinking of Martin Luther King Jr., who “defined all of us in this question of what it means to be an American.”

Sorett pointed out that the hope of a post-racial era is based on the possibilities and opportunities King advocated.

“King was talking about solidarity,” Sorett said.

Sorett concluded by saying that in the wake of Obama’s inauguration, the country is in the process of embracing a post-racial era.

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