Post-racial America? Dream on

The day that Barack Hussein Obama was elected 44th president of the United States of America I thought about watching the televised election results with friends at our favourite bar, but as day blended into night I found myself getting emotional about the moment and opted to watch at home with my sister. We grew up hearing my father use the idea of America electing a black president to define anything else he thought was impossible. For example, if we asked for a new bicycle he'd say that we'd get one when the United States elected a black president. My sister and I knew what that meant – never! Yet there we were, about to witness our nation doing what my father thought it would never do. I savoured the historic moment and wished that my father, who had been a grassroots civil rights activist during the 1960s, had lived to see it.

A few days later I started hearing television commentators applauding the election as a sign that America is now "post-racial". Suffice it to say that despite my excitement, this black American thought that theory was a load of crap and it didn't take long for events in America to challenge the assertion too.