Race & Identity

The biggest blow to affirmative action in its nearly 50 years of existence was the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States. Not because Obama is against the policy (he is, as on so many issues, nuanced in his support, i.e. he believes it should exist but not extend to his children) but because his election was widely perceived as being reflective of a profound shift in the country's racial balance.

Irascible rednecks are nothing new in politics. Once upon a time, they tended to be either marginal firebrands like George Wallace or, more recently, the ne'er-do-well, embarrassing siblings of well-educated Southern pols — think Billy Carter or even Roger Clinton. But nowadays they seem to be the mainstream politicians themselves.

This year’s “Super Tuesday” of primary elections across the country featured plenty of women to watch: Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln fought off a tough challenge from fellow Democrat Bill Halter; Nikki Haley, the Indian-American conservative battling allegations of "inappropriate sexual contact" will face a runoff for governor in South Carolina; and in California, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and Hewlett Packard executive Carly Fiorina emerged victorious after expensive, blistering primary campaigns.

Obama has had a few choice words for reporters recently. He warned graduates at the University of Michigan of the damage the media do by playing up “every hint of conflict” to produce “sexier” stories.

Vilification on both sides, Obama said, “prevents learning – since after all, why should we listen to a ‘fascist’ or a ‘socialist’ or a ‘right-wing nut’ or a ‘left-wing nut’?”

The Texas State Board of Education, the most astringently reactionary body since the Spartan Ephorate, has decreed that textbooks for the schoolchildren of Texas are to include Confederate President Jefferson Davis’s inaugural address along with the first inaugural of Abraham Lincoln.

Shortly after the volcano in Iceland polluted the skies over Europe, and while the British Petroleum oil spill contaminated the Gulf of Mexico, Rand Paul dumped the intellectual equivalent of toxic pollution into the world of public discourse by claiming that it was wrong for the Civil Right Act of 1964 to outlaw segregation in private facilities.

It's easy to assume that Arizona has become the epicenter in the battle against illegal immigration primarily because it has one of the highest percentages of undocumented migrants of any state in the union. But that's just half the story behind the fear many white Arizonans evidently feel.

Immigration has returned to center stage in the U.S. for wrong but not un-reasonable motives. The S.B. 1070 signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer in April has set off an explosion of condemnations, justifications, and demonstrations. This brouhaha has brought the issue back to the fore, leading thousands to muse about, hope for, or decry the possibility of comprehensive reform. It is long overdue.

Immigration reform came to the forefront once again last month, when Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona signed a tough new immigration bill into law, which some fear will lead to racial profiling of Latinos. And now legislators in other states may be following suit.

Meanwhile, a recent USA Today/Gallup Poll found that while Americans are concerned about securing the borders, they are also concerned about the fate and welfare of undocumented immigrants who work and stay out of trouble.

Why are large chunks of the American right so freaked out by illegal immigrants? Because they are no longer so freaked out by African-Americans.

And in this regard, the politics of 2010 are more like 1910 than 1970.