Our second debate: A more perfect union?

In the weeks and months after Barack Obama’s election, many members of the punditocracy opined that America had now become a “post-racial society,” i.e., that while there were still individual racists among us, and while isolated incidents of racism would persist, the country as a whole had “transcended” the legacies of slavery, of Jim Crow, of segregation, of racism more generally. Of course, many others were quick to point out that the notion that a single presidential election might somehow signal the definitive end of the vexed history of race in America is, at best, naïve or, worse, an attempt to whitewash that history from present memory.

In this next debate, we’re going to examine the topic of the race and democracy from an angle somewhat different than the pundits did. Rather than asking “Is America a ‘post-racial society’ or not?” (Answer: It isn’t. — Ed.), we’ll ask: Should it aspire to be? That is, does creating a more just democracy (or, as Obama might put it, “a more perfect union”) require that we “transcend” race?

If your team is arguing “yes, a perfect union would transcend race,” then you’ll need to define what you mean by transcend. If you’re arguing “no,” then you’ll need to propose an alternative to transcendence.

Debate Team 3 will affirm the proposition that a just democracy would “transcend” race; Debate Team 2 will deny it. (The teams will find pertinent info about the debate format here.)

To get up to speed on a contemporary version of this issue, everyone in class should read this brief blog posting and this one after watching this video of Obama's "A More Perfect Union:"



(If you prefer to read, a transcript of the Obama speech can be found here.)

Members of the debate teams should develop their arguments by reading Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (as well as the statement by white clergymen that prompted it) and reading and/or listening to Malcolm X’s “The Ballot or the Bullet.” (For some background on these texts, you might consult the Wikipedia article on King’s letter and on Malcolm’s speech. For a little background on "A More Perfect Union," click here.)