New day, same shit.

It's the 14th of January, in 6 days George W. Bush will finally be out of office, and the great Black(or half black) hope will take office. Some people, white people, see this as the end of Racism in the United States, and as such an end to any claim that blacks have to affirmative action. Some people, black people, see this as the beginning of the government taking an actual interest in the well being of Black Americans. The sad and true reality is that Obama's victory may strengthen certain forms of racism and undermine attempts to advance minorities to social equality.
First, racism is not dead. It actually cannot be pronounced dead until all minorities accomplish permanent equal social standing as whites. This is when all the measured statistics that are used in some circles to rationalize black inferiority, after the decline of biological racism, are the same across all races we can say that racism is dead. That will be the day that blacks and latinos are no longer disproportionately represented in the underclass and incarcerated, which would reflect unbiased education and justice systems. On that day minorities and women will also be equally(proportionate to their population) represented in all levels of business an industry, which would reflect unbiased advancement opportunities. If this was all naturally occuring then you could declare racism dead.
What is preventing this from occuring? Colorblind racism for one, colorblind racism is the child of the right wing, yet is fostered by the left's acceptance of the main tenet needed to apply colorblind racism. That tenet is that since the civil rights era blacks(or all minorities) have had the same opportunities as whites. Thus blacks failure to accomplish is due to the inferior nature of African American culture, and blacks are as such still inferior and worthy of discrimination.
Of course there is the discrimination thatand the inequal inheritance of generational wealth that affects all blacks ,and the cycle of poverty that affects those in the lower class that represent the actual barriers to black achievement and need to be addressed.
Second, the government will not magically start caring about black people. Why, congress and the senate remain overwhelmingly white, and represents mostly white people. As such just as missing little white girls are always big news stories, and missing little black girls go virtually ignored, the legislature will continue to not give a fuck about black people.
Yeah reparations will not be forthcoming, what will be forthcoming are attacks on affirmative action using the shift in public(white) opinion about racism.
As such, what can Obama do for black people. Well for one, he is likely to try to try to protect affirmative action by nominating liberal minded supreme court judges. In an interview, I believe on CNN, Obama when questioned about affirmative action said it was necessary but he did not want people who did not need it, such as his daughters, benefitting from it. He also plans to attack poverty which will be heartily welcomed considering the current financial environment and educational reform. This puts blacks in a position to advance their social position greatly. Also I feel like in ads there has been a visible shift toward representation of blacks as middle class this could possibly represent a shift in media attitudes in general and could help positively influence white attitudes toward blacks.
I guess that my title is a little more pessemistic than my post, and a change may finally be coming.