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Obama term expected to be post-racial

Agenda heavy with economy, foreign policy

By Andrea Billups (Contact) and David R. Sands (Contact) | Sunday, November 9, 2008

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Five days after the election of the country's first black president, the issue of race and its prominence in the agenda of the incoming Obama administration remain major question marks.

In his inaugural press conference Friday, President-elect Barack Obama made clear that the central focus of his first days in office will be the struggling economy, but for many blacks, the exhilaration of Tuesday's result remains fresh.

"Four years ago, I never would have believed it could happen," said Alvin Russell, a banking officer from Silver Spring. "I just did not think the country would be ready for it."

Gerald O. Johnson, publisher of the Charlotte Post, a black-owned North Carolina newspaper, noted in an editorial that Mr. Obama's campaign, which largely played down the issue of race, undermined the idea that "the job of president of the United States was a white man's game, that others need not apply."

Unlike previous black politicians such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, "Barack Obama did not come to the table touting African-American issues," Mr. Johnson wrote in an editorial. "He sold himself talking about American issues."

Some are openly speculating that Mr. Obama's win may signal a radical reframing of the discussion on race in America, as well as altering the debate over affirmative action.

"This was a color-blind election," said Deneen Borelli, a fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research in Washington.

"Obama's success certainly makes the case for any race-based preferential treatment a weak argument," she said. "You may still have individuals out there who will try to uphold that 1950s and '60s argument that blacks still need such treatment, but his personal story proves otherwise."

During the campaign, the Illinois Democrat listed several civil-rights issues that he would tackle if elected president, including employment inequities facing minorities and a ban on racial profiling by federal law enforcement agencies.

"We shouldn't ignore that race continues to matter," Mr. Obama wrote on a questionnaire given to presidential candidates by the NAACP. "To suggest that our racial attitudes play no part in the socio-economic disparities that we often observe turns a blind eye to both our history and our experience - and relieves us of the responsibility to make things right."