Thursday, November 12, 2009
Melissa Harris-Lacewell

The Shifting Politics of Race in the Age of Obama
7:30 p.m.
Sykes Common Room

What are we to make of the racial implications of the election and presidency of Barack Obama? On the eve of Barack Obama's election American public opinion was deeply racially divided. Yet Obama was elected by a large multi-racial coalition. In the months since his election expressions of open racial animus seem ever present. Yet citizens continue to reject racism as incommensurate with American ideals. The broad and sometimes contradictory trends force us to question the contemporary contours of racial politics in the United States.

Melissa Harris-Lacewell is associate professor of politics and African American studies at Princeton University. She is the author of the award-winning book, Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought, (Princeton 2004). She is at work on a new book: Sister Citizen: A Text For Colored Girls Who've Considered Politics When Being Strong Wasn't Enough. (Forthcoming Yale University Press)