At the school that I go to, which is often classified as "liberal" there is not a lot of talk about race, politics, or money.. Every once in a while the subject of race will arise and then simmer back down. However, we do have occasional conferences and workshops that bring up discussions about class, ethnicity, race, gender, racism, sexim etc. Although these topics rarely come up in the classroom setting (unless you are in American Cultural Studies), I was still suprised when Barack Obama was elected President the day before our school Assembly, and not a word was mentioned about it at my school. Fortunately, people hadn't stopped talking about the election outside of the assembly. In our Black Student Union group (BSU), an affinity group geared towards but not only open to people who identified as black, we talked about the importance of the election and its historic nature:The first person of color to be elected president, the largest voter turnout, the largest number of youth who got involved in the campaigning... These were all firsts for this country. In the group we shared excitement, doubts, fears, and opinions about the election. We talked about race and the impact this election has had on the country in regards to race. The question was then raised: Has the election of Barack Obama changed the Way America Sees Race? A few days ago the club held a discussion about the election with this question as the prompt. The whole school was invited to attend. Many people thought that race relations had not changed at all because of the elections and that race relations might get worse. Others believed that the election of Obama created a sense of "color-blindness", or that it didn't matter what the race of our president was anymore. These were the two extremes of the responses to the question during our discussion. I was wondering what you all though about the question. Obviously racism is not over, and the the election of Obama is one of many steps that will have to be made in order to create change in this nation... but what do you think about how race is seen in America now (America could mean people, media etc.)? Is it any different than before Obama was elected president? What do YOU think?

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