Term Paper on "Racism Without Racists"
Term Paper 5 pages (1381 words) Sources: 0
[EXCERPT] . . . .
Racism Without RacistsThere is a marked contradiction in the perceptions on racism in American society. In his book Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva investigates how such detailed system of inequity continues to exist, even as many Caucasians insist that society has progressed, to an extent that racism is no longer an issue. The author further investigates how Caucasians are able to both assert their social dominance, even as they create a facade highlighting their own supposed color-blindedness. The effect of this fake color-blindedness, says the author, is to actually dismiss.
Bonilla-Silva builds his study on two surveys, one with 627 college students from different areas of the country and the second with 400 Detroit area residents. Bonilla-Silva then conducted follow-up interviews with the survey participants. The respondents in Racism Without Racists are limited to Caucasians and African-Americans, a limitation that the author himself acknowledges. Perhaps the silver lining to this limitation, however, is that the reader is able to focus more readily on the animosity that many African-Americans harbor against whites. Conversely, white respondents to Bonilla-Silva's writings also show that many whites exhibit distance, misunderstanding and sometimes hostility against black people.
According to Racism Without Racists, white people are able to create such "color-blind racism" by re-articulating key values of traditional liberalism -- such as individualism, meritocracy and a strong work ethic. However, these values are employed towards goals that are far fr
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To shore up this argument, Bonilla-Silva points to survey results and interviews showing that the people located towards the bottom of the racial hierarchy -- meaning African-Americans -- tended to be the most opposed to racism. On the other hand, the people who benefit from the "wages of whiteness" are the ones who defend or simply passively accept that society is now colorblind, or that white people rightfully hold privilege. Furthermore, there is a schism in how people view racism's roots. For many white people, racism is an expression of an individual's racial hostility. Many minorities, however, view racism as being systemic or embedded in social institutions.
This dichotomy makes it even more difficult to come to an understanding regarding the roots of racism.
The author argues that color-blind racism is articulated through four interpretive frameworks. White people who employ the framework of abstract liberalism attempt to seem reasonable, only to turn around and argue against programs that are aimed at addressing the de facto racism that continues to pervade society. A person falling under this category, for example, could oppose bilingual education, on the grounds that children should learn to communicate in English. This argument ignores, however, that many children need language resources and additional tutorial in order to fully benefit from their public school education.
There is another camp that argues that racial inequality is natural, that it is the way things have always been. In combination with abstract liberalism, this framework forms the basis for arguments that American society is characterized by a meritocracy, that it is the most qualified members of the group who are able to rise to the top.
Again, this argument ignores sociological factors, such as how many jobs are obtained through access to social networks.
Finally, many Caucasians also employ the language of cultural racism as a method of minimizing the continuing effects of racism in American society. The role of institutional or systemic racism in addressing discrimination against African-Americans, for example, is minimized when white people charge that blacks exaggerate in attempt to cover up their own indolence or lack of intellectual prowess.
These frameworks are used as a basis for different styles of being racist, even while a person expresses pure color-blindedness. People employing an abstract liberal framework, for example, would see themselves as true, color-blind liberals. However, they are also likely to oppose programs such as affirmative action… READ MORE
Quoted Instructions for "Racism Without Racists" Assignment:
On page 2 of his book Racism without Racists, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva writes,
How is it possible to have this tremendous degree ofracial inequality in a country where most whites claim that race is no longer relevant? More important, how do whites explain the apparent contradiction between their professed color blindness and the United States' calor-coded inequality? In this book I attempt to answer both of these questions. I contend that whites have developed powerful explanations-which have ultimately become justifications-for racial inequality that exculpate them from any responsibility for the status of people of calor.
In this essay, you'll be discussing precisely those "explanations" that Bonilla-Silva uncovered in his research. You have two major areas to cover:
First, Bonilla-Silva divides the content of such "explanations" (what he labels "color-blind racism") into three broad sections: (1) the central frames of color-blind racism; (2) the style of color-blind racism; and (3) the racial stories of color-blind racism.
*Your task here is to describe these three elements in turn, focusing on their contents. What purpose(s) do they serve, and how do they work together?
*you should be mindful of both Bonilla-Silva's arguments as well as our discussions of them during class. While the bulk of the necessary information resides in chapters 2-4, the best answers will draw from his overall discussion with an eye for what I specifically highlighted in class.
Second, plug these an*****s into the idealist/materialist binarism I described at the very beginning of the course. While I made it clear that Bonilla-Silva unequivocally locates himself on the materialist end of the spectrum (see page 21, note 55), most of his book is focused on ideas. Why is this? (Recall the example on the Iraq War I gave during that lecture.) How does this all connect to the title of his book, Racism without Racists? Your answers to these questions must be at least two pages.
How to Reference "Racism Without Racists" Term Paper in a Bibliography
“Racism Without Racists.” A1-TermPaper.com, 2006, https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/racism-without-racists/264238. Accessed 28 Sep 2024.
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