Race in America: Is it no Longer an Issue?

Among newborns, minorities outnumbered whites in the U.S. for the first time last year, the Census Bureau reported. And in November 2012, Americans elected the nation's first black president to a second term.

By the 2020 presidential election, the 8-to-29 age group will be comprised of 47 percent minorities, and by 2028, minorities will be a majority of the U.S. population.

For many Americans, these changes are statistical proof that we now live in a post-racial society-- one in which the old "minority" will soon be the "majority" and for these reasons, they believe, it is time that the laws are updated to reflect that.

In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court soon will hear and quite possibly overturn two important cases first decided less than 50 years ago: In one case, the issue of race preferences in university admissions to promote diversity is up for review. 

In a second case, key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, an act that prohibits states from denying any citizen of the United States the right to vote on account of race or color, is also subject for reversal.

But are these shifts in numbers an accurate signal of a post-racial society? And after only five decades have these historical rulings truly outgrown their public utility?

Well, the court's five conservative justices believe so and seem poised to declare a new post-racial moment.

They point to increased levels of voter registration and turnout among blacks as evidence that the laws are irrelevant. However, lower federal courts just in the past year found discriminatory practices, such as voter ID laws and other election restrictions, passed in South Carolina, Texas and Florida.

So, is stripping these laws the best approach to "re-leveling" the playing field since America has become so colorblind?

According to a 2012 Associated Press survey that measures “explicit anti-black attitudes," from 2008 until now -- since the time of the election of President Barack Obama -- that figure has gone up three points, with 51 percent of Americans showing they now harbor such racism.

When an “implicit racial attitudes” test is applied, the jump is even more dramatic, from 29 percent in 2008 to 56 percent now. The poll also found an increase in prejudice against Hispanics, rising from 52 percent to 57 percent in the last year alone. 

"We have this false idea that there is uniformity in progress and that things change in one big step," Jelani Cobb, professor of history and director of the Institute for African-American studies at the University of Connecticut, told AP.

But, he added, "That is not the way history has worked. When we’ve seen progress, we’ve also seen backlash."

Do you think the U.S. Supreme Court should overturn these two methods of providing equity and protecting the rights of previously disenfranchised groups?