“This assumption that of all the hues of God, whiteness alone is inherently and obviously better than brownness or tan leads to curious acts…” Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, “The Souls of White Folk,” from Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil (1920)

In 2012, MSNBC’s The Cycle co-host, Toure, explored the issue of race right on the heels of President Obama’s reelection in his book, Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness: What it Means to be Black Now.

In the midst of the latest rash of race-induced headlining stories, two more questions come to mind:

1). What does it mean to be racist in America?

2). Why is race still so hard to digest?

Post-racial?

We have not even begun to make that journey.

On April 22nd, 2014 the Supreme Court supported the voters of Michigan by upholding a ban on affirmative action in the state, specifically as race is used as a factor for admitting students to the University of Michigan. Justice Sotomayor, appointed by President Obama, was one of two justices (Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg joined her) who voted against the Supreme Court decision.  In her now much referred to 58-page dissenting opinion, Justice Sotomayor pointed out that white graduates of public Michigan institutions could still exercise the privilege of lobbying the admissions board to garner acceptance for other relatives into the school; thus, they can use a “legacy” policy of admissions.  Black students, especially ones never having any relatives who have ever attended college before, will not be so fortunate.

And so I began thinking about what would happen to students whose race was “detectable” by their names.  And, would these same students also be denied entry because an admissions counselor had these special “race discerning” powers just by reading the name on the application?

Out of my own curiosity, I presented my students with a role play / scenario to see if they could determine the race of a person based on the person’s name.  In a hypothetical, in-class assignment, I had my students pretend to be a panel of admissions counselors with the sole responsibility of admitting students to our make-believe school, but they could not consider the student’s race.

Hmmm…But, would they?

They were charged with developing our made-up Freshman class from the applicants presented.  While I didn’t disclose any of the racial demographics with my students, they did as I assumed they would–associated the names they considered Black and/ or “ghetto” with a Black person, gave a ‘white’ designation to names that they argued a white person would have, and assigned “other” to names that appeared to be of Arabic, Asian and/or Hispanic descent.

Surprisingly however, my students naturally capped the number of perceived Blacks they admitted despite the applicants’ qualifications.  And, they were far more lenient with the spaces given to white and Other students arguing their attempt to create a “diverse environment.”

This is what racism does.  It forces those that have been disenfranchised to self-impose limitations.  It makes the targets of its practice justify why racism may not be happening when clearly the effects of the actions imposed by the dominant, ruling class suggest that racism is the only plausible explanation.

While watching my students continue with this assignment, it was clear to me that Professor Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, Constitutional Law Professor at John Jay College, was right to coin the Supreme Court’s Schuette vs. Coalition of Defend the Affirmative Action ruling a ‘Supreme Flaw.’ in the New York Amsterdam News, Vol. 105, No.17.

Our world has evolved in ways I am certain earlier Neolithic people never imagined. The idea of race is already a baffling enough construct. Add to that the notion that we still have not reached a place where it can be discussed genuinely and meaningfully there is no wonder it appears we are all suffering from indigestion.

We could all use a little bit of relief.