There are many good reasons why we would want to "get past" race (forgiveness, generosity, a mutual granting of humanity). And bad ones (a crude sense of pragmatics, an unwillingness to deal with this "issue" any longer, impatience). My talk will delve into how these questions register both in specific national historical situations and also more broadly. Materials will include literary texts, autobiography, social theory, historical cases, and engage deeply with issues of interpretation, judgment, and action.