Dennis Perrin wrote:
>
> > I still think that Obama's election represents a sea-change in America's
> > race politics, and one for the good. Is that naive?
>
> Depends. I don't think it should be completely dismissed, given the surge of
> energy and HOPE that his election inspired (however generalized and
> unfocused),
The _center_ of racial politics in the U.S. today is the debate over "responsility" re poor Blacks. The material grounds of that debate is the extreme povety of blacks in the central cities. As long as those continue there will be no substantial change in racial attitudes.
Obama has directly and emphatically taken the racist side of this debate! There simply is no question about that.
For a further change in racial attitudes there would have to be, at a minimum, a huge WPA-type prgram launched for the benefit of those central cities, accompanied by a guaranteed income for those the WPA does not reach. This would have to be followed up by the decriminalizing of retail drug dealing (preferably by the repeal of drug prohibition). There would also need to be a major purge of police departments in the larger cities, backed up by personal recognition bonds for all accused of non-violent crimes. Probably city jails should be turned into pleasure resorts in addition.
The WPA program would be the basis for a school-reform program (new buildings, larger staff, reconstituted programs) in the central cities of at least the magnitude of the Manhattan project.
This is a minimal program for a "sea-change" in American racial politics.
Carrol