One of the many shortcomings of all-news radio and TV stations, such as CNN, Fox News and WNBC, is that they have to struggle to keep our attention, to satisfy sponsors with decent ratings. Fox has nearly perfected the shock and scare method. Sean Hannity makes outrageous and indefensible commentaries…and then there are the car chases from lofty TV cameras in helicopters…and detailed reports of the latest blond female missing for about 15 minutes from a Midwestern mall.

The 2-year election marathon afforded them an abundance of matter….with endless theories and charts. Now that the election has concluded, we are offered only speculation and theories…with a few scare tactics served up.

One of the most elusive and irritating utterances to emerge is the phrase “Post-racial America.” No one has spelled it out for me. It just sits there and I being parroted by newspaper and magazine pundits, who also have the need to grab our attention at the expense of actual news.

I assume that the notion of “Post-racial America” means that Barack Obama’s election as president – the first African-American in our nation’s history – proves that race is not a determining factor in our political and social lives.

Indeed, the election of Senator Obama is monumental. And when we get beyond the historic and emotional aspects of his victory there is also the stunning realization that a bright and energetic young man has inherited a mess from the worst president in history. One political pundit described George W. Bush as having the lowest approval rating in the history of polling, and a sly comic observed that George Bush’s approval rating was lower than Herpes.

(My quoting of the comic is an example of a media person struggling to hold your attention with the shocking or outrageous comment.)

But “Post-racial America?” Of course the election of Barack Obama will inspire, and increase hopes and dreams for a segment of the population which has always known what limitations have been imposed. Laws and customs have excluded African Americans. It has been part of the American fabric. I don’t mean to diminish the importance and the worldwide impact of the Obama victory, but saying that we are in a “Post-racial America” is to ignore the fact that the election of Barack Obama is only the start of substantive change, not the end.

While glowing in the aftermath of Election night, we have also been made aware of some ugly events that were probably over-publicized. A Black church burnt to the ground in Massachusetts, a young, Black Staten Island man was beaten up on election night, and there were various reports of other displays of anger. None of this is new to Black American and it has been spotlighted as part of the aftershock of some white Americans who have realized what has happened.

For some, mostly unfulfilled angry, young white males, their whiteness was their sole qualification for what appears to be entitlement…entrée to the American dream filled with riches. And with their collective sense of inadequacy they have responded to the prospects of an Obama presidency with violet attacks. From my childhood, I always recall bullying acts around election time…with and without racial aspects. It is not new.

“Post-racial America”?

I experienced two events shortly after the election that prompted me to question the concept being thrown out there.

I attended a hit Broadway musical. The theatre was standing room only with over 1,000 people in attendance at Billy Elliot in New York City – the alleged cultural capital of the world. I looked around and saw only 2 Black faces.

 A few days later, I was with the cast of the off-Broadway play, The Castle, performing at a maximum security prison in New York state with an audience filled with Black and Latino faces. Most of the guards were white.

That is not “post-racial”…no matter what the political pundits have suggested. It dramatically exposes where and what white America takes for granted and what Black America knows.

It is not my intention to be a voice of cynicism amidst the euphoria of Obama’s election…but his triumph should not be used as a reason to put on blinders and think that the goal of social justice has been achieved because of an important political win. The Obama victory should be an inventive…a rallying cry at the grassroots.

But we will only be in a “post-racial America when every Black youth in New York City does not expect to be stopped by the cops for what the young people describe as the “offense” of “standing on the corner while being Black.”

Let us be clear. We are not in “post-racial” America. We are at the brink of an exciting new adventure for our nation. After 8 years of disaster we have a new energy around the land, led by a bright and hopeful new president who is a man of color.

But we are only at the beginning. There is work to be done…not only by the President Elect…but by every one of us who loves the taste of social justice and equality, and who some day, together, can celebrate a post-racial America.

I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb.