Conservative opponents to the modestly successful strategies of the Civil Rights Era have used those strategies and rhetoric about equality to reverse the political and economic gains made between 1954 and 1978.4 Social programs perceived to be serving the needs of racially identified groups have become particularly vulnerable to fiscal and personal responsibility hatchets. Even in the arena of health care, legislators applaud cutbacks in Medicaid and Medicare, claiming illness is a consequence of poor judgment and bad lifestyles, for which the public should not have to pay. Because cultural diversity is a profitable commodity, it helps produce a world in which this week's ethnic festival masks festering racist attitudes, behavior and policies. In the festive atmosphere created by international food fairs, one hundred percent cotton garments from India, and Hallmark's Kwanzaa cards, it is easy to lose sight of the complexity of racism in its contemporary expressions. We now have casual relationships across racial and cultural identities, dance to salsa, and brazenly adorn ourselves in kinte cloth at graduation.
People of color appear in popular and news media and occupy positions of power and status.
Rap music and Michael Jordan are cultural icons. This does not mean we have entered a new age in which racism no longer has a grip on our lives. Certainly, we should not dismiss the soft tolerance achieved as a result of diversity campaigns. There is a significant difference between choosing how one self-identifies and having identity conferred. Conferred racial identity embodies an enduring presumption that there is something fundamentally wrong with people of color.