Racism Without Racists Summary
Tianshu Wang
Racism without Racists
In the first chapter of his book Racism without Racists: Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva argues that color-blind racism, a new racial ideology which emerged in the late 1960s (16), has become “a formidable political tool” for “the maintenance of the racial order” and “white privilege” in the “post-Civil Rights era” (3). According to his argument about color-blind racism, in contemporary America, although few whites appear like racists, racial inequality does exist everywhere (2). Racism changed from “overt means” of discrimination to “subtle and institutional practices” (3). “Nonracial dynamics” become “white common sense” about explanations …show more content…
First, he uses a lot of instances in daily life to illustrate that nowadays in the United States most whites claim that race is no longer a problem (2), but in fact blacks and other minorities, who receive impolite treatment both economically and politically, are “at the bottom of the well” and suffering from racial inequality (2). Instead of Jim Crow racism, which enforced racial inequality by overt means such as calling blacks “niggers” (3), today color-blind racism behaves in a covert way, “subtle institutional and apparently nonracial”, in order to keep minorities in a subordinate position and maintain “white privilege” (3). For example real estate agents do not show all the available units to minorities in the housing market to “maintain separate communities” (3). Second, Bonilla-Silva compares the four ways in which the “survey community and commentators” explained about changes in whites’ racial attitudes in the post-Civil rights era (4), and demonstrates his arguments by expressing his agreements and disagreements with their thoughts. He argues like them that color-blind racism is characterized by “traditional liberalism”, which criticizes blacks for not working hard (7), and explanations of blacks’ position in terms of culture (7). But in addition he also expresses “one central theoretical disagreement” with others because his model is based on “a
Racism without Racists
In the first chapter of his book Racism without Racists: Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva argues that color-blind racism, a new racial ideology which emerged in the late 1960s (16), has become “a formidable political tool” for “the maintenance of the racial order” and “white privilege” in the “post-Civil Rights era” (3). According to his argument about color-blind racism, in contemporary America, although few whites appear like racists, racial inequality does exist everywhere (2). Racism changed from “overt means” of discrimination to “subtle and institutional practices” (3). “Nonracial dynamics” become “white common sense” about explanations …show more content…
First, he uses a lot of instances in daily life to illustrate that nowadays in the United States most whites claim that race is no longer a problem (2), but in fact blacks and other minorities, who receive impolite treatment both economically and politically, are “at the bottom of the well” and suffering from racial inequality (2). Instead of Jim Crow racism, which enforced racial inequality by overt means such as calling blacks “niggers” (3), today color-blind racism behaves in a covert way, “subtle institutional and apparently nonracial”, in order to keep minorities in a subordinate position and maintain “white privilege” (3). For example real estate agents do not show all the available units to minorities in the housing market to “maintain separate communities” (3). Second, Bonilla-Silva compares the four ways in which the “survey community and commentators” explained about changes in whites’ racial attitudes in the post-Civil rights era (4), and demonstrates his arguments by expressing his agreements and disagreements with their thoughts. He argues like them that color-blind racism is characterized by “traditional liberalism”, which criticizes blacks for not working hard (7), and explanations of blacks’ position in terms of culture (7). But in addition he also expresses “one central theoretical disagreement” with others because his model is based on “a