Thinking about the election or in search of a race neutral narrative

I just saw a play by Christina Anderson, an African American playwright. It is called ‘Hollow Roots.’ It’s a monologue and the protagonist is in search of a race neutral narrative. She walks all over the city, talking to over a 100 people in search of brown person with a race neutral narrative and she never finds such a person. At the end of the play she looks at the mirror and thinks hers is race neutral narrative, but at the same time she realizes she has forgotten her own name and who she is.
After the play there was a discussion between the actress and an African American poet, about identity and race based identity and how there isn’t such a thing as a race neutral narrative. The poet argued that all our identities, stories, narratives are defined by race.. As I was listening to their discussion I was thinking: “I don’t think about race when I think about my life story or my work. “ But then suddenly I realized that the reason I do not think about race is because I am white and no one is reminding me, every day, of my race.

On Tuesday night Obama was reelected President of The United States of America and Romney had to concede. The newspapers said Romney never considered losing a possibility. In fact he didn’t even write a concession speech. As he was giving his concession speech I looked at his audience and saw that everyone was white.
On my way home from the play tonight I realized Romney did not anticipate his loss for the same reason I thought my narrative was race neutral. We are both white. When you are white in the USA, you are not conscious of race, unless some one makes you conscious of it.
Romney thought he was race neutral, because no one reminded him of his skin color on a daily basis. Romney never realized that people look at him and see a white person surrounded by a lot of white people. He never realized how those who are not white may see him and how that may affect their vote.
By the time the next census is performed whites may not be the majority in the United States. Maybe then the protagonist in ‘Hollow Roots” will find a race neutral narrative.