Friday's Guest: Post-Election Blues & the Dawn of the "Race Merchants"

Regardless of who wins the presidency in November, one of the key issues facing our new leader will be soothing national racial tensions. Just today, John McCain's people accused Barack Obama of "playing the race card" after Obama cautioned his supporters that McCain would be sure to make race an issue because the presumptive Democratic nominee is so ... "different."

As if to underscore how important he finds the issue of race relations to be in America, McCain gave a speech before members of the Urban League today and delivered remarks to the NAACP just recently. The gist of these talks was to let African Americans know he cares about the issues that are most important to them.

In this week's "Friday's Guest" column, About.com guest commentator Jack Kerwick takes a look at race relations in post-election America and what Americans can expect as the nation recalibrates its political machinery to brace for the new administration.

From the article:

The notion that charges of “racism” against American (white) society will diminish or cease with an Obama presidency cannot be seriously entertained. In fact, if Obama wins, the cottage industry devoted to “combating” the evil of “racism” that emerged in the 1960s and which continues to thrive today, will expand exponentially. That things couldn’t really be otherwise becomes obvious once we consider the extent to which so many activists, politicians, intellectuals, academics, and pop-culture celebrity figures of various sorts have invested their very lives into sustaining and growing it. It is not just money and fame, but immense psychic and emotional satisfactions that are among the dividends for pitting oneself against the omnipotent and omnipresent forces of “racism” in our “politically correct” culture.