RACE 2012

Recipient of a 2013 CINE Golden Eagle Award

RACE 2012: A Conversation About Race and Politics in America, a PBS election special, uses the 2012 presidential election as a lens through which to explore America’s rapidly changing racial landscape.

As recently as 1980, 80% of the United States was white, but results of the 2010 Census depict a nation whose non-white population has grown to more than 35%. Ethnic and racial minorities continue to grow, promising to impact America’s political present and future. RACE 2012 helps viewers gain a better understanding of America’s changing racial landscape through the lens of politics and the people who are, have been, or will be driving the nation’s conversation about race.

The film looks at pivotal moments in the history of race in the U.S., notably the Founding Fathers’ passage of a naturalization act and an immigration reform law signed by President Johnson in 1965. The reform triggered an immigration wave that was drastically different than the European arrivals of the 1890s. The program spotlights today’s racially charged and politically divisive debate over the integration of racial minorities into what has been a predominantly white society.

RACE 2012 offers thoughtful insight and analysis on the paradigm shift taking place in the country and questions the model by which we view identity politics.