An intriguing – and ironic – scenario is playing out in Illinois in the wake of Barack Obama’s election as president of the United States. Obama’s senate seat was the only one held by an African-American. If Illinois Gov. Rob Blagojevich, who will make the ultimate call, doesn’t choose another African-American – such as Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. – the number of black senators will be back to zero.
This is progress?
Wrong question.
This isn’t 1991 when President George H.W. Bush had a “black seat” on the Supreme Court to fill to replace Thurgood Marshall. And that, of course, led to the cynical and controversial appointment of Clarence Thomas, Marshall’s ideological antithesis. But he was black.
In reality, a sign of progress will be Obama’s senate seat not being regarded as some kind of black sinecure.
The right question?
Who is best prepared to represent the state of Illinois – and the rest of the United States of America — in these extraordinarily challenging times?
If that’s the colorblind query, it will be a sign that we are, indeed, continuing to make racial progress in the United States of 2008.