On this Inauguration Day in 2009, most people are looking at race in a very different way than on past presidential inauguration days. We have our first multiracial president, Barack Obama, and even if he does self-identify as black, he cannot deny DNA. Much is being said and written about how this presidency signifies a post-racial America.

I think what "post-racial" means is that we have finally, gone beyond race, transcended it, and have become instantly color-blind. Wow. If only that were true, but it's not. If that were true, racism would be outdated - a thing of the past - but unfortunately, it's not. If "post-racial" means society now embraces everyone of every race as family or friend, looking completely past race, we know that is not true either.

In a post-racial America, we would not need to count people by race so we could get rid of all of those "experts" on racial and ethnic data in the US Census Bureau, and many government agencies could go. Commissions like the US Commission on Civil Rights, which never upheld multiracial rights anyway, could finally shut down. Academics who have made a career out of teaching courses about race - not to mention a lot of money from the books they have written - would be out of jobs. Those all-knowing journalists who have all become overnight experts in racial data could take on other beats. Demographers who specialize in race could finally retire.

In a post-racial America, we would be able to close down Project RACE. We would no longer need to advocate for a multiracial classification or for rights for multiracial children and adults. So, would someone please let me know if we really are in a post-racial America?

I think what we have now is truly a multiracial America and we may soon be able to acknowledge as a society, that people can and do want to embrace their entire heritage. It is time to make that a reality; yes, we can.

Susan Graham
Executive Director
Project RACE