Are We Living in a Post-Racist America?

As we discuss racism, slavery, and what the election of an African American present indicates about the status of racism in our country, I was curious to see some other attitudes towards the issue of race. I found an article written by a man named Dinesh D'Souza, who, in 1995, published a book titled The End of Racism. In his book, D'Souze did not argue that racism did not exist in America, but that it no longer dictated how black people should or had to live their lives. He now argues that Predident Obama was elected because he was "judged not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character." Obama's demeanor and conduct, and the fact that he is not a "race-hustler," is what sets him apart from, say, Jesse Jackson, who tries to turn vicitimization into self-profit. In essense, D'Souza argued that as a whole, America now sees past skin color and makes character judgements rather than racial, and this has allowed African Americans to live their lives as they wish without racial barriers.
With all the hype over how enlightened Americans are, now that we are being lead by a man who would have had to sit in the back of a bus a half a century ago, it seems that we are too caught up in our achievements to focus at another prevalent form of discrimination: that against gay Americans. Is it possible that in fifty years, we could elect a homosexual to be our president? Today, that seems virtually impossible. Just as we denied African Americans basic rights, we are presently denying gay Americans the right to wed. The American Dream consists of marrying the person you love, having a family, and maintaining a job to support that family. We are denying these Americans the right to fulfill the American dream. While gay marriage may seem radical now, electing an African American would have been unthinkable a hundred years ago. It is time that we open our eyes, stop congratulating ourselves on overcoming discrimination based on race, and stop discriminating based on sexuality.