Many thought that Barack Obama's election to the presidency
would signal that racism was now largely left to America's past.
The Shirley Sherrod case makes palpably evident, however, a
profound shift that has materialized in the politics of race in
America since the 1980s. Conservatives, overwhelmingly white,
have seized on any racial reference by political figures to
charge that the latter are perpetuating racism. Institutional
racism is deemed anomaly rather than any structural condition.
As a result, conservative insistence on a literal colorblindness
has undercut any attempts to invoke racial considerations to
redress the lingering debilitating effects of past
discrimination. Conservatives have figured out a partially
effective politics of race that speaks to their principles,
places liberals on the defensive, and not only gets
conservatives off the racial hook for being soft on racism, but
enables them to set the terms of the racial debate. They can
project themselves as crusaders for a colorblind Americ