On racial history in the US

As every one else I've been pined down by the carpet bombing of superlatives fired by the media after the election of Mr Obama. "Historical" has certainly been the most recurrent one. It went along with countless stories retracing the long march of the US African-American citizens from the irons of slavery to the White House.

No doubt, this is an amazing journey, but the way it is presented nowadays not only in mainstream media but also in schools and even in some case in universities is to say the least problematic. It is mostly a sort of "heroic" way of telling history from Dubois to Dr King and from Rosa Park to Michael Jordan.

At best it is childish, at worst it concentrates on a few shiny examples and simply forgets the masses.

Statistics are sometimes mentioned (number of Black youth in jail, percentage of dropouts, poverty rate, etc) but these are almost never put in a historical perspective. These would help to estimate whether Mr Obama's election is truly significative in terms of progression of equality in the US society.

Lets make something clear, Mr Obama's presidency MAY be historical but necessarily for African Americans. It also MAY be a turning point for the black community in the US, but if so its because of Mr Obama's actions as a policy-maker and/or a role model or whatever else, not because he is the last step in the long march out of the cotton fields.

What do you think of the way racial history is told in the US?