A look at The Nation‘s coverage of the racial progress and tension in America during the first few months of the Obama presidency.
Despite the historic and inspirational election of America’s first president of color, 2009 has been a year filled with racial turmoil. The economic crisis has taken a disproportionately severe toll on African-Americans and the healthcare debate has inspired overtly racist rhetoric directed at the president.
Still, there is proof of progress as well, from the emergence of Michelle Obama as an American icon to the confirmations of Eric Holder and Sonia Sotomayor as the nation’s first African-American Attorney General and the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice respectively. Through it all The Nation has offered its unique brand of progressive coverage and analysis.
The arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., not known for fiery rhetoric on racial issues, proves to be another divisive moment for uneasy Americans. Some rush to defend the white police officer who arrested Gates in his own home, while others express anger over the unfair treatment of a respected intellectual. Gary Younge wrote, “[T]he fact that racism might affect a Harvard professor is amazing only if one buys into the idea that black people who have reached a certain status should be exempt from racism. If you believe that, then the problem with Gates’s arrest is not racism. It’s that he was treated like a regular black person.”
President Obama tries to broker peace by inviting Gates and Officer Crowley to the White House for a beer, but the incident only reopens barely-healed racial wounds. Photo courtesy of the White House.
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