“Change we can believe in” and “Yes we can” were some of the slogans used in propelling President-elect Obama, D-Ill., into the White House. Indeed, his win was both convincing and historic. However, what does Obama’s presidency mean for racism? Is racism in fact eradicated? What is the relationship between Sen. Obama being elected and the eradication of structural racism?

I believe some whites voted for him because of his policies and because it helped them deal with their own racism, but it did not change the nature of structural racism. America will never be a post-racial society because it has not gotten to the root of the problem facing poor and colored people. Is Obama prepared to get to the root of the problem? Will he take the suggestion of the colonialist theoretician Frantz Fanon who said, “The prognosis is in the hands of those who are prepared to shake the worm-eaten foundations of the edifice.”