KIRWAN “Despite many differences, human destinies are intertwined.” – from the Kirwan Institute Mission Statement An update of activities from the Kirwan date Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity INSTITUTE Autumn 2008 Executive Notes The United States made history on November 4, 2008, by electing the first African American to the office of presi- dent. President-elect Barack Obama will Professor formally take office john a. powell on January 20, 2009. This change has been called the end of the Civil War, the end of the Southern Strategy, and a move to post-racialism in the United Jo McCulty States. While there is some merit to the first two claims, there is none to the Does Barack Obama’s Victory third. Herald a Post-Racial America? It is difficult to overestimate the role of race in shaping the American consciousness and American institu- By Andrew Grant-Thomas, Deputy Director tions. Too often we think of race, or more accurately racialization, as some- thing that impacts and affects people of On the morning of Tuesday, January 20, 2009, Barack Obama will become the color only. There is little understanding first “African American” president—the first non-White male president—in of how race has shaped the racial iden- the 232 year history of the United States. He will have won 67 million votes, tities of Whites and has as well shaped more than any candidate ever. As Senator John McCain graciously noted in his our public and private institutions. For concession speech, given the deep and divisive history of race in the United example, Paul Krugman asserts that States, that such an enormous coalition could coalesce around the candidacy the weakness and gutting of the union of a Black man (“with a funny name,” no less) is indeed cause for celebration. movement in the 1940s was motivated Some argue that Obama’s victory proves that race no longer plays a by racial concerns. The result of this meaningful role in determining who gets what in this country. Indeed, attack continues to have implications former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett recently declared an end to for the depression of wages and bene- excuse-making by people of color: “Well, I’ll tell you one thing [Obama’s fits for our entire society. Similarly, win] means…You don’t take any excuses anymore from anybody who America rejected universal health care says, ‘The deck is stacked, I can’t do anything, there’s so much in-built more than five decades ago in part out this and that.’” Coming from the man who suggested just two years ago of fear of integrated health care. that “aborting every Black baby in this country” would be one sure way The controversy over slavery and race to reduce the crime rate, Bennett’s assertion is painfully ironic. More to was one of the defining, if not the the point, the conclusion he draws from Obama’s achievement—in effect, defining, issue for the new republic from that we have become a “post-racial” society—is one we can expect to hear the beginning of nationhood. Consider echoed repeatedly in the months ahead. the South’s demand that slaves be (continued on page 4) (continued on page 2) INSIDE: • International Perspectives: Obama’s Election • Why We Need to Talk About Race • Affirmative Action Ballot Initiatives Update • Subprime Lending Convening Overview • Kirwan Fifth Anniversary Event Executive Notes (continued from page 1) counted as part of their population so that was no longer appropriate to be expressly on forms of racial attitudes and more on the South would have greater parity with racist. Too many White Americans were effects of institutional racism and implicit the North in national elections. Out of this starting to reject this world view. Instead, bias. Will we take the opportunity this demand, the Electoral College was born. this strategy required that the national time? The jury is still out. As a result of this agreement, the South Republican Party make weak appeal to fair- and particularly the largest slaveholding ness and equality while organizing and state, Virginia, dominated national poli- supporting White resentment. It is what tics and the presidency up to the Civil War. Patricia Williams calls racism in drag. It john a. powell Consider that many of the early presidents only works if the racism is not consciously Executive Director were slaveholders who would not have won recognized. The Willie Horton ad (his name without counting the slaves. This includes was not Willie) used by George Bush Sr. is Jefferson. When our early institutions were an example of priming racial resentment taking shape, issues of slavery were salient while claiming to be for racial fairness. A B O U T T H E I N S T I T U T E in the national consciousness. Seating in The South so dominated national politics The Kirwan Institute for the Study of the early Congress until the Civil War was that only Republicans and Democrats from Race and Ethnicity is a university-wide not divided by parties as it is today, but was interdisciplinary research institute. Its the South would be elected president until divided by support or opposition to slavery. goal is to deepen our understanding of this election. But it was not just the elections Even our concept of class, and particularly the causes of and solutions to racial and that were at issue but what kind of country working class, was argued with slavery being ethnic disparities and hierarchies. This the United States would be. And the United includes an explicit focus not only on a constant reference. States continued to be a country where Ohio and the United States, but also on As Toni Morrison suggested, the institution meaningful racial justice and other progres- the Americas and our larger global com- munity. Our primary focus is to increase of racialized slavery does not just mark and sive causes could not be fully pursued. Laws general understanding that, despite define Black America, it defines much of were passed that were designed not to work many differences, human destinies are America and American institutional design. or would not be implemented. The Supreme intertwined. Thus, the institute explores As Eric Allina-Pisano states, much of Amer- Court seemed to be more influenced by the and illustrates both our diversity and ican exceptionalism is about slavery and Confederate Constitution than the post common humanity in real terms. race. After the Civil War, there was a chance Civil War Constitution. The institute brings together a diverse and to radically change this. And change it did, creative group of scholars and research- All of this is now up for grabs. There is but not toward a racial democracy but a new ers from various disciplines to focus on a new world coming. But it would be racial arrangement that not only reinsti- the histories, present conditions, and the a huge mistake to assume that as race tuted states’ rights, as Douglas A. Blackmon future prospects of racially and ethnically issues change, racism will end. We have marginalized people. Informed by real- asserts in Slavery by a Different Name, but missed earlier opportunities to move to world needs, its work strives to meaning- also new forms of White supremacy that a truly racially just society. Instead, we fully influence policies and practices. required violence and state complicity. have witnessed the evolution of race and The institute also focuses on the interre- This dual system was not formally rejected racism. Slavery, Jim Crow, and the Southern latedness of race and ethnicity with other until the 1950s and 1960s. As a number of Strategy should make it clear that race issues factors, such as gender, class, and culture, commentators have noted, non-Whites were are adaptable to the times. and how these are embedded in structures not allowed to effectively participate in the and systems. Collaboration with other creation of the (White) middle class during We now have another opportunity. It is a institutions and organizations around the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. The implication wonderful opportunity not just for people the world and ongoing relationships with for this in terms of wealth and opportunity of color but for our entire country. But real people, real communities, and real issues are a vital part of its work. continues to haunt us today. And the reverse the thinking and conversation about post- redlining that characterizes the subprime racialism is troubling. We are still thinking The institute employs many approaches market could only happen because of of racial expression that has been declining to fulfilling its mission: original research, publications, comparative analyses, sur- redlining decades before. for decades. We are inclined to overly focus veys, convenings, and conferences. It is on racial attitudes, meaning conscious racial The political alignment that allowed all part of a rich intellectual community and attitudes. And indeed they have improved. this to happen was the one party system in draws upon the insight and energy of the But we pay virtually no attention to implicit faculty and students at Ohio State. the South after the Civil War: a White-only racial attitudes nor do we focus on the work party. This party, sometimes referred to as While the institute focuses on margin- that our institutional design is doing. To Dixiecrats, held the Democratic Party as a alized racial and ethnic communities, it paraphrase John Rawls, to know if a society understands that these communities exist willing hostage to racial arrangement. This is just, look at the work that its institutions in relation to other communities and that marriage between the Dixiecrats and Demo- are doing.