Essay 2 - Colorblind Ideologies PDF

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1 SOCY 1021-001 Complications of Colorblind Ideology and The Rise of a New Racism The ideology of colorblindness first came to prominence in the mid-1960s as a means of resolving the paradox of racism without legal precedent which was established by the illegalization of segregation. Following a national outlawing of segregation by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, practices of racism shifted from being overtly oppressive to covertly subversive and suppressive, challenging the recently established status quo of racial equality. The colorblind ideology developed initially as a product of changing social structures, particularly in the South. Beginning after the Civil War and legally justified by Supreme Court cases such as Plessy v. Ferguson, racial segregation was a cornerstone of the Southern way of life, guided by the doctrine of separate but equal, which rarely held true in practice. Legislation across the South, commonly known as Jim Crow, created strict racial divides that translated to further degrees of socio-economic discrimination. Such laws were eradicated as the Civil Rights Movement brought them to national attention, leading to a shift in public opinion. Despite these changes in the status quo, racially demeaning attitudes and behaviors continue to persist, necessitating further shifts in perspective. A colorblind ideology can be defined as a means of thinking about race which ignores the existence of race, as either a unifying or dividing factor. Such a theory implies that everyone, regardless of their racial or ethnic background, has an equal starting point as well as equal opportunities within life. Additionally, it posits that racism is minimal or even nonexistent, favoring the explanation of cultural factors as why minorities are responsible for their own disadvantages in society. This is problematic in that it allows for an outright denial of racial,

2 ethnic, and cultural differences that play a key role in the racial inequality that defines contemporary America. Those who claim to be colorblind are “unlikely to experience disadvantages due to race, can effectively ignore racism in American life, justify the current social order, and feel more comfortable with their relatively privileged standing in society” (Fryberg 117). Such a position disrupts what progress has been made to terminate racial inequality and offers a convenient escape for those who do not have to come face-to-face with the realities of race on a daily basis. Race plays a critical role in defining our identities, not only individually but in the collective sense as well. At first glance, it might seem that all categories of racial identity are created equally, but the subversive nature of institutional racism has resulted in something far more unaccommodating. Whiteness is differentiated from other racial identities as it is inherently assumed to be above them, aiding the daily lives of whites just as much, if not more, than it hinders the daily lives of minorities.. Associated with this is the existence of the myth of meritocracy - the idea that success will come to those who work hard regardless of their background. In large part, this is undermined by the extent to which racial inequality and inequity play a role in US society. Such a myth assumes that there is a level starting point from which all people can strive to achieve their goals; however, this is far from the case. In reality, the opportunities and resources available to white people are vastly different and arguably superior to those available to minorities. For example, Peggy McIntosh’s list of white privileges describes the extent to which connections between whiteness and power are constantly assumed in American society. The most scathing examples on this list are those that are indicative of greater structural issues, such as “I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial

3 group” or “I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help my race will not work against me” (McIntosh 2). Given this information, an understanding of the white racial identity, particularly white privilege, is critical to studies of race relations, perhaps largely in part due to the structural factors which perpetuate racial inequality being a white construction to ensure the continuation of their assumed superiority. In his article on colorblind privilege, sociologist Charles Gallagher examines the extent to which colorblind ideology has risen to prominence as well as the various connections between colorblind ideology, privilege, and pleasure. Pleasure is the most worrying of these factors, as it comes at a massive and often unrecognized cost. White people are pleased by the assumption that by adopting an ideology of colorblindness, the systematic interactions which produce racial inequality are suddenly erased. This sort of internalized equitability is extremely troubling; it demonstrates the extent to which whites, as the dominant racial group in our society, have been able to manipulate culture to avoid discussions of white privilege and the role it plays in defining race relations in America. “Believing and acting as if America is now color-blind allows whites to imagine a society where institutional racism no longer exists and racial barriers to upward mobility have been removed” (Gallagher 123). The outlook of color blindness that Gallagher analyzes is ultimately one that ignores the existence and impacts of racial inequality, both historically and in the present. It allows for an insensible and overall unconscious lack of comprehension of racial differences and divides, producing new problems instead of making a concentrated effort to solve those which already exist. The concept of laissez-faire racism, as termed by Lawrence Bobo, plays an additional role in understanding colorblind ideology. Laissez-faire racism is defined as “the current social

4 structure and attendant ideology [which] reproduces, sustains, and rationalizes enormous black-white inequality” and “involves a persistent negative stereotyping of African Americans, a tendency to blame blacks themselves for the black-white gap in socio-economic status, and resistance to meaningful policy efforts to ameliorate racist social conditions and institutions” (Bobo 150). A major issue here is that colorblind ideology plays a significant role in the general populace ignorance of these factors. Because of how colorblind ideology discards race as little more than a cultural token, whites are able to justify their position in the modern, albeit racialized social structure as something that they earned instead of something that they constructed. The implications of this play a far wider role in the construction of racial inequality in the US. Particularly, this is exemplified through the idea of a “new” racism - the suggestion that prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory behaviors in a post-Civil Rights Act world are often subtle and indirect in the ways they generate racial inequality. Such a concept is an intersection of numerous factors: social, cultural, political, structural, economic, and historic elements combine and intersect to preserve racism’s unrelenting effects in ways which are challenging to acknowledge and change. Taking into account these considerations as well as a plethora of others, race clearly remains a critical issue in the contemporary United States. Why else would the University of Colorado Boulder require students to take a course on perspectives of diversity in the US in order to graduate? De facto segregation - that is to say, discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity without the explicit sanction of law - continues to this day through numerous institutions of society, with some of the most visibly punitive being mortgage discrimination and redlining. Maintaining color consciousness is necessary to bring about true equity; the multifaceted issue of

5 racial inequality in this country cannot be fixed through ignorance or any shred of doubt about its very existence. Colorblindness in itself is a form of racism, and accepting it as a valid means of ending discrimination is an ignorant, not to mentioned extremely privileged position. Additionally, it is imperative to acknowledge the extent to which the interplay of cultural and structural factors play a role in the construction of contemporary race relations. Historical factors must also be considered, as the divide that racism has incited is hardly a new phenomenon. To the contrary, it has had and continues to have innumerable wide-reaching implications that have a very real effect on the present. Gallagher describes this almost perfectly in his article on the matter, stating that “we are not now, nor have we ever been, a color-blind nation” (Gallagher 129). The ideology of color blindness ultimately furthers the issue of white privilege and ignorance to the systemic issues of racial hierarchy that are institutionalized into American society, yielding little more than a deficient philosophy of race relations. Racism is alive and well in the United States and the world as a whole, further necessitating the need for appropriate ideologies, philosophies, and perspectives on the complex ideas that govern race.

6 Bibliography: Bobo, Lawrence. “Laissez-Faire Racism, Racial Inequality, and the Role of the Social Sciences”. The Changing Terrain of Race and Ethnicity . Russell Sage Foundation, 2004. Print. Pp. 148-157.

Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America . Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2014. Print.

Fryberg, Stephanie. “When the World Is Colorblind, American Indians Are Invisible: A Diversity Science Approach”. Psychological Inquiry , Vol. 21, Iss. 2, 2010. Pp. 115-119.

Gallagher, Charles. “Color-Blind Privilege: The Social and Political Functions of Erasing the Color Line in Post-Race America”. Rethinking the Color Line: Readings in Race and Ethnicity . McGraw Hill, 2018. Print. Pp. 119 - 129.

McIntosh, Peggy. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”. 1988. Accessed March 9th 2019 at https://canvas.colorado.edu/courses/24139/files/2563131?module_item_id=1134334...