Arguments for Tim Wise's "Between Barack and a Hard Place" and Bob Herbert "Separate and Unequal"

     In Tim Wise's interview about his book, Between Barack and a Hard Place, he argues that the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States does not represent the transcendence of racism in America.
     Wise describes what he calls Racism 2.0, which is American society's election of Obama as not accepting black culture but rather seeing Obama not as a stereotypical black man who acts white, that is why he is elected.  Wise argues that this is sending the wrong message to blacks and whites and represents that racism still exists in an American society. Society does not accept black culture because in order to be a successful black man you must conform to white standards. CONNECTION: Delpit would argue that Obama is an example of someone who was shown the culture of power.  Wise argues that just like Brown vs. Board, though Obama's election was a huge step forward, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.
     In Bob Herbert's editorial, "Separate and Unequal" he points out that there is still racial segregation in schools today even after Brown vs. Board made it illegal.  Though segregation is not legally enforced, residential patterns, housing discrimination and economic disparities have influenced the public school systems that keep the poor hispanics and blacks separate from the middle class.  Herbert argues that in order to bring success to the students in these poor school systems they need to be interwoven into middle class public school communities.  The race and class of the students is not the problem he points out, but the problem is the academic environment that the poorer minorities are being exposed to and forced to learn in.  He backs his opinion with evidence where his theory was successful in Montgomery. Some middle class schools have accepted this and asked and received additional resources to help benefit their entire school community.