Let's start the new year on an optimistic note.
We may not yet live in a "post-racial" society, but inexorable forces are pushing us in that direction.
For example:
- Genetic studies have conclusively established that categorizing people by features like their skin color, the shape of their nose, or the texture of their hair has no scientific basis.
- Immigration and multi-racial marriages are making such categories increasingly problematic and irrelevant in day-to-day life.
- And younger generations, while not yet completely free of unconscious stereotyping, are less driven by prejudice and suffer less attendant rage and guilt.
Taken together, these forces are inexorably lowering the social and economic boundaries between groups.
Indeed, even in the debris of the Great Recession, researchers have discovered a new vein of optimism among people of color. More than two-thirds of Black and Hispanic Americans believe their economic situation will improve over the next ten years.
According to another study, Black Americans' perception of racial bias has declined by more than a third since the 1950s.
Unfortunately, the same study indicates White Americans think such progress was at their expense. Their perception of anti-White bias has more than doubled.
I suspect perceptions of anti-White bias reflect a generalized resentment of affirmative action and the social imposition of political-correctness. As the researchers noted, "by nearly any metric — from employment to police treatment, loan rates to education — statistics continue to indicate drastically poorer outcomes for Black than White Americans."
The factual data support neither Black optimism nor White resentment. But in time the former may be justified. And once White Americans realize that economic and social equality is not a zero-sum game, the latter may dissipate.
Ironically, real progress depends on both.
Meanwhile the road ahead may be bumpy, even if we can be rightfully optimistic about the destination.
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