Premature Post Racialism

The election of Barack Obama does not signal the end of racism, nor does it, despite the assertions of so many, indicate that we are living in a post-racial era. But it does indicate that we have entered a new phase of America's tortured history with race.

Another example of the strides we have taken comes from the most unlikely place, Philadelphia, Mississippi, in Neshoba County. Philadelphia was the scene of perhaps the most notorious race murders during the civil rights era, the killing of civil rights workers Mickey Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney during Mississppi's Freedom Summer in 1964 (this is the story that provides the backdrop for the deeply flawed movie Mississippi Burning). Philadelphia also was where Ronald Reagan kicked off his campaign for the Presidency in 1980, which may be excusable, but at that kickoff he gave a speech in support of state's rights, which, less than a generation removed from Freedom Summer, was and is inexcusable. A remarkable thing happened recently in Philadelphia. The city elected its first black mayor, a Pentecostal minister and former city manager named James Young. Philadelphia is 56% white (though Young only garnered a third of the white vote) and it does not appear that Young's election will raise any racist ripples.

We should not overstate what Young's election means. (This year Montgomery County High School in Georgia held separate but equal proms for white and black students, as it has just about every year since the schools there were desegregated in 1971.) But we also should not understate what it all means. As the civil rights activist Charles McDoo has often said, those who say things haven't gotten any better were not there. Things have gotten better. but that does not mean we have gone far enough. Let us not make the mistake of thinking that we have.

Safundi and Southern Identity: Self Indulgence Alert

Jeff Woods, a grad school colleague and friend, and I are the guest editors for a special issue of Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies devoted to the theme of Southern Identity. In addition to editing duties, I contributed the introduction and the conclusion/response to two prominent scholars who wrote responses to the issue. we are proud of the final product.

We came up with the idea at the Southern Historical Association's annual meeting in 2003, put forward a call for papers in January 2004 and have been working on the project in fits and starts ever since. originally conceived as a book project, in the end, doing it as a journal issue made more sense and worked out well for us. If you are in academia and your library does not subscribe to Safundi, make an inquiry, request it, lie and say that it is essential to your work. If you are an individual, subscribe. It is well worth it.

I have taken the liberty of placing a link to this issue under our slowly expanding list of books and similar publications.

A Heritage of Hate

Just about anytime I see anyone celebrating the Confederacy I prepare myself for a rant. But if there is a ranking of talking-to-a-wall debates in American society, it seems that getting into an argument with those who would commemorate traitorous racists (or is it racist traitors?) ranks in the top five (number one has to be abortion, doesn't it?). In any case, Matthew Yglesias says much of what I might in deriding Confederate Heritage Month, so I'll let him take it away:

It seems that April is Confederate Heritage month. Why one would want to celebrate a heritage of violent rebellion against a democratically elected government in order to perpetuate a system of chattel slavery is a bit hard for me to say.

When I was growing up in New York City, for example, I don't remember any mass campaigns to celebrate the 1863 draft riots as the city's finest hour. The states of the Old Confederacy are hardly unique in that elements of their historical heritage involve discreditable treatment of African-Americans. But they do seem unusual in their insistence on celebrating these historical episodes and in insisting that portraying them in a positive light is integral to a proper understanding of their local identity. Even odder, as best I can tell these days (it was different in the past) most of the folks who like to wave the Confederate flag are perfectly genuine when they get offended that others see them as waving a banner of violent white supremacist ideology. But if that's not the ideology you mean to associate with, then why not drop the flag and adopt some less provocative emblem of Southern folkways?

I'll tell you one answer to that question: because it's all a house of cards, and because race is a factor in the overwhelming majority of these people's zeitgeists. Anyone who reads the secession statements of each of the states that declared war against the United States, and anyone who reads about the secession commissioners, knows exactly what the Confederacy was about. The South need not perpetually be burdened with the most shameful elements of its history except for when the region's most ardent apologists choose exactly those elements to celebrate. The question is not one of States' Rights, but rather of the States' Rights to do what?

The Oxford American on Sports

The Oxford American (which you should be reading) has devoted its latest issue to sports. Great writing + Sports = Yummy Goodness.

Facing South Toward Katrina

Facing South, the blog of the Institute for Southern Studies, argues convincingly that the Bush Administration continues to fail New Orleans. I'm also adding Facing South to the dcat blogroll.