Does forgetting race make us (or Chris Matthews) post-racial?

The World

For the hour of Wednesday’s State of the Union address, MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews said he “forgot” President Obama was black, causing a wide range of responses (including some on our show) the next day. Do we all need to forget about race to be post-racial? Or do we just need to acknowledge and accept people’s race?

We talk with Boyce Watkins, a professor at Syracuse University and the founder of Your Black World coalition, and Gustavo Arellano, who writes the syndicated “Ask a Mexican” column, about what it means to be post-racial in America.

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