Perhaps you’ve heard of The Decoy Effect, or perhaps not.

Basically, when presented with 2 options, people tend to reverse their decision when a third option is placed into the mix to act as a foil against the other two.

It’s fascinating to me that people so readily proclaim that the election of Barack Obama shows that race relations have made huge strides in this country. There’s no doubt that the reality of a black president is one that is much more palatable to people now than, say, 20 years ago. That’s a given.

How did we get here, though? I refuse to believe that all those morons that watch Fox’s ‘24′ have somehow been swayed to the notion of electing Obama simply because Keifer Sutherland places his trust in a black president too. 

I think it’s time we face reality: Barack Obama would not have been elected if not for two things. First, he is succeeding a white cowboy president widely regarded as one of the worst in history. Second, America has stopped seeing the Black Man as the scary Other since they have been faced with a much scarier Other, the Arab Muslim.

It’s simple: the decoy effect. Normally I don’t think there’d be any hand-wringing over who to elect between two equal candidates, one black and one white. But if my choice is a black guy who is the polar opposite in every way to the white idiot man-child that just ruined my country for the last 8 years of my life, I’m much more inclined to vote for him. Besides, even if black people do make me a bit uncomfortable, it’s nothing like the utter trepidation I feel when I board a plane and sit next to a Muslim family wondering aloud which seat on the plane will be the safest in the event of a crash.

Let’s face it. Race relations have not come very far in our national character. They’ve just been decoyed. We’ve shifted our fear and scapegoating from blacks (who still get a fair share, huzzah!) to a much scarier and foreign Other: the Muslim.

I find it so ironic that ‘race relations’ boils down to a concept so black and white. Because we elected a black man, racism has softened in America. Please. Call me once the other half of my country stops shitting pineapples when a congressman gets sworn in on Jefferson’s Quran.