Striking a balance between being president of all and a representative of his race “might be Obama’s toughest challenge.”

Watch FLYP Media’s video interview with political scientist
Melissa Harris-Lacewell, in which she discusses the outlook on
everything from community organizing to Obama’s impact to gender
lessons we will have to learn in the future

"We the people, who endured the abortion of Reconstruction and carried the weight of Jim Crow. We the people, who swung from Southern trees and stood on the front lines of foreign wars. We the people, who taught our children to read even though the schools had no books. We the people, who worshipped a God of liberation even as we suffered oppression. We the people, who gave America back its highest ideals with our nonviolent struggle against injustice.
We the people are now Americans."
– Melissa Harris-Lacewell in The Nation, 11.24.08

Also, check out FLYP’s interactive infographic, in which Americans’ attitudes toward race and immigrants come alive.

 

Biography

 

Melissa Harris-Lacewell is associate professor of politics and African
American studies at Princeton University. She is the author of the
award-winning book, Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought, and is currently at work on a new book titled Sister Citizen: A Text For Colored Girls Who’ve Considered Politics When Being Strong Wasn’t Enough.
Harris-Lacewell provides regular media commentary on U.S. elections,
and issues pertaining to race, gender and religion. She maintains The
Kitchen Table blog on race, politics, religion and popular culture with
fellow Princeton Professor Yolanda Pierce.