Many intellectuals took Obama’s election as proof America had moved past racism

Evidence

“HISTORIC WIN,” blared the headline of The Philadelphia Inquirer the day after his election in 2008. “Change has come to America.” Nearly 70 percent of Americans agreed that his election would improve race relations in the country. To some, it was a watershed moment. ” ‘In answer to the question, Is America past racism against black people,’ I say the answer is yes,” Columbia University linguist John McWhorter wrote in Forbes weeks after Obama’s election. “Our proper concern is not whether racism still exists, but whether it remains a serious problem. The election of Obama proved, as nothing else could have, that it no longer does.” — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1239

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how widely the post-racial reading of Obama’s 2008 win was held among mainstream scholars, and how it collapsed.