Post-Racialism in 1990s America

The debates about the new NC State African American Cultural Center reflected larger national trends towards a narrative about the end of racism inspired by the growth of economic inequality and conservatism during the 1970s and 1980s.  By the 1990s, most middle-class Americans found themselves earning less real wages than they did in the early 1970s.  This decline in real economic power of middle-class whites were tied to larger economic trends of post-industrialism but inspired a political backlash against African-American claims of continued racial inequality.  For white Americans, near-universal acceptance of affirmative action and social welfare turned to feelings of frustration and fear fueled by the perception that these programs privileged African Americans over white Americans.[1]  

The debates about the African American Cultural Center raise troubling questions about the state of racial dialogue at NC State in the early 1990s.  Although the African American Cultural Center was supposed to provide an open and comfortable forum for students to meet on equal ground and discuss issues of historical and continued racial inequality, many students felt uncomfortable using the center.  In addition, the debates that did occur over the Cultural Center expressed very different worldviews and seemed to rather than with each other.  Given the viciousness of these debates, could The Technician or the Cultural Center provide a legitimate, positive forum for interracial dialogue?  Or did the debates about the African American Cultural Center still point to the need for a segregated, safe space to talk about race?