Obama’s challenge

Newsweek has a great cover story about Barack Obama that touches on one of the least-talked about, but most interesting issues surrounding his candidacy: the worry among some black leaders and voters that electing a black president could actually be bad for blacks. The argument goes that once an African-American has been elected president, society will be tempted to conclude that all the problems of racial justice have been solved and move away from things like affirmative action.

Here’s Obama’s response to this question:

“the impulse I think may be to write a story that says Barack Obama represents a quote-unquote post-racial politics. That term I reject because it implies that somehow my campaign represents an easy shortcut to racial reconciliation. It’s similar to the notion that if we’re all color blind then somehow problems are solved….Solving