A positive among the attack ads in the Gecker-Sturtevant race (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Julian Hayter, a historian and assistant professor of leadership studies, is quoted in an article about the use of political ads in the 2015 race for Virginia's 10th Senate District seat.
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“Doesn’t it really ultimately comport with people’s ideas of post-racialism?” said Julian Maxwell Hayter, assistant professor at of leadership studies at the University of Richmond.
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“We’re leading the charge there. And it’s not just Northern Virginia. So in some ways, the type of interracialism we’re seeing in politics is a reflection of demographic trends,” Hayter said.
But the reality is that the election of President Barack Obama hardly made us a post-racial society, and indeed, has produced backlash and backsliding. And as Hayter points out, individual bigotry (or the lack thereof) should not be confused or conflated with the enduring problem of institutional racism. “We don’t like to talk about that, because it’s complicated.”
“The idea of adopting kids really does feed into this idea of moral altruism, to people’s obligations to vulnerable communities. And I think that’s noble,” he said. But such nobility does not absolve politicians of accountability, he said.