Is Obama the end of black politics?

That’s the provocative title of Matt Bai’s new piece in the New York Times mag.

Here’s the cornerstone of the story, from page 2:

The generational transition that is reordering black politics didn’t start this year. It has been happening, gradually and quietly, for at least a decade, as younger African-Americans, Barack Obama among them, have challenged their elders in traditionally black districts. What this year’s Democratic nomination fight did was to accelerate that transition and thrust it into the open as never before, exposing and intensifying friction that was already there.

On the final couple of pages, Bai deals with the issue of whether being the country’s first black president could be constraining on Obama in some ways.

He offers no answers, but, this and other open questions he raises, in the broader context of the future of black politics, are ones worth discussing.