How Is Colorblind Racism Present in Everyday Talk?
Introduction
Colourblind racism occurs as the belief that “racism no longer exists as a problem, and hence we have equal opportunities.” The history of the colourblind racism started in the 1960s and 1970s when the subjects of racism had a significant belief in the biological inferiority. Notably, most of the people realized that race is never biologically based due to various difference encountered within racial groups. In response to such factor, the colourblind racism theory emerged due to increases in complex debates about the race in society. Besides, instead of the individuals in communities argues on the racial factors based on principles of biology, they changed the tune and focused on cultural and social perspectives. Base on such ideologies, some of the minority groups were viewed as deficient that explained unequal opportunities in employment and education system. Individuals who believe in the colourblind posits that they never see the color of the individual’s skin, thus possessing a belief of equality for everyone. Moreover, colorblindness limits people from seeing the historical causes of racial disparities and how such aspects exist in society as time also changes society changes in the ways they handle issues related to social and cultural. In the United States, the community have significantly changed in the deal with the problems of racism henceforth changing to the colourblind concepts. Time has resulted in eliminations of some of the ideologies such as “blacks are subhuman” and replaced by the colorblind racism in the American communities. Notably, as supported by various sociologist, colorblind racism happens in four key frames such as naturalism, abstract liberalism, minimizations of racisms as well as cultural racism. Therefore, colorblindness persists as the primary way we, as a society, deal with race in united states based on the four frames.
Abstract Liberalism
The principles of the abstract liberalism posit that modern racisms witnessed in American society occur as the combination of the anti-black resentment and American creed. According to Bonilla-Silva (2002), the frame offers contrary evidence employed by the white individuals, which comprises the creation of the interracial relationships, affirmative actions and residential segregation. In most cases, whites in society rationalize racial unfairness while implying equality in educations and employment opportunities (Bonilla-Silva, 2002). For instance, in one of the interviews with white university students about the issues of offering equal opportunities to minority students to get admitted in the higher learning institutions, she provided the following answer and explanation. “I don’t think that they should be provided with unique opportunities. I think that they should have the same opportunities as everyone else. You know, it’s up to them to meet the standards and whatever that’s required for entrance into universities or whatever. I don’t think that just because they’re a minority that they should, you know, not meet the requirement, you know” (Bonilla-Silva, 2002). Such individuals and the entire society, more so the whites never focuses on the past and current acts of discrimination on various factors like education, economic and social based on the nature of the minority groups (Martinez, 2009). Instead, they advocate for equality for everyone without concentration on the inequalities existing among the whites and blacks in the society.
Similarly, most of the whites never consider the factors that limit blacks to have equal opportunities. For instance, the students cannot mention the reasons behind the minority groups not performing well and achieving the same qualifications as the university entrance as the white students (Bonilla-Silva, E. (2006). Furthermore, based on abstract liberalism as posited by sociologists like Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, most white in the United States used the meritocracy in explaining different racial matters in society (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). On the same note, the whites believe that “nothing should be forced upon people” hence “keeping things the way they are.” Based on liberal democracies, the government should get little involved in the matters of social and economic aspects of the society since the unseen hand of the market system would bring things to the state of equilibrium. As per Martinez (2009), the concepts implies that social change should originate from the consequences of the democratic and rational process instead of the government involvements. Such affirmative action results in education and residential segregation in American societies (Bonilla-Silva, 2002). For instance, an interview with a white student on whether the government should get involved in the school segregation issues offered the following response. “In principle, yeah, I think that’s a good idea because like with, like with people interacting, they will understand each other better in future generations. If people volunteer, it is their life, but the government should not force people to the bus if they don’t want that. I don’t think the government should impose any legislation thinking that it will change people’s heart because people have to change them on their own” (Bonilla-Silva, 2013). Most of the whites rooted in the colorblind racism would use the concepts of the abstracts liberalism by arguing that the government doesn’t need to remedy the racial challenges experienced in society.
Naturalization
The frame of naturalizations in colorblind racism takes thing to be “natural” hence whites conducting their activities the way system exist. As per Bonilla-Silva (2013), the naturalization ideologies normalize actions of the individuals that could be termed and have the interpretation of the racially motivated, such as in the case of residential isolations. Most of the sociologist and scientist know that some of the social issues occur naturally more so when focusing on the aspects of racism in society (Bonilla-Silva, 2002). For example, an interview to the frame possessed the following response from a university student. “I don’t really think it’s a segregation. I mean, I think people, you know, spend time with people that they are alike, not necessarily in color, but you know, their ideas and values and class. But is don’t really think it’s a segregation I don’t think I would have trouble, you know, approaching someone of a different race or color” (Bonilla-Silva, (2006). Based on Bonilla-Silva arguments as well as others sociologists and scientists, the current societies belief that segregations experienced in the residential and educations system occur naturally receives faces setbacks as most of the students indicate racial consideration playing a significant part (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). For instance, residential segregation gets aided by the white buyers who consider the white neighbourhood leading the establishments of white schools hence entire phenomena of racial isolation.
Cultural Racism
Colorblindness acts as the primary way society deal with racial issues through cultural racism. Martinez (2009) posits that the concept is well established in the American society based on the cultural activities of the minority groups in which whites believe that their racial inequalities originate from unhygienic conditions, disorganized family structure as well as low level of morality in the society. Bonilla-Silva (2002) explains that most of the whites currently rooted in the colorblind racism posit that minorities position in the community results from limited or lack of efforts, misleading and inappropriate customs and values and low-income family organization structure (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). Interview on one of the students about the frame explained the following based on a question such as (“many whites explain that status of the blacks in this country as a result of blacks lacking motivation, not having the proper world ethic or being lazy”). The student answers occur as “yeah I totally agree with that. I don’t think, you know, they’re all like that, but, I mean, it’s just if it wasn’t that way, why would there be so many blacks living in the projects? You know, why would there be so many poor blacks? If they worked hard, they could make it just as a high as anyone else could” (Bonilla-Silva, 20013). Based on this frame, whites would view the racial discrimination by the black and other minority groups as an excuse in hiding the system behind blacks ranked lower in social and economic status as compared to the whites. Notably, whites beliefs the disparities encountered by the minority group results from their cultural system (Martinez, 2009). As seen in the United States, the poverty of the blacks is high, hence limited opportunities to get quality educations system and subsequent quality jobs like the white counterparts.
Minimization of Racism
The frame expresses the ideologies of colorblind racism through various explanations. Both whites and blacks agree that discrimination towards the minorities groups such as blacks exit as challenges in the United States. However, whites believe blacks are in their present position as a group due to biases they experience today (Bonilla-Silva, 2002). Notably, whites in the current society believe that racial discriminations were eliminated and disappeared. Still, on the other hand, blacks know and understand that both old and new racial prejudices persist. As per Bonilla-Silva (2002), various studies conducted on discrimination as a critical reason in making blacks behind whites or limited jobs opportunities and promotions resulted in different responses. For instance, one of the respondents responds by saying, “I think that there’s probably less than it used to be, but that it still happens. It’s just in isolated places or, you, know, it happens in different places, but in most jobs, I think it probably does not happen” (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). Studies conducted in these frames indicates that participants use the direct minimization and outright denial, implying that minority groups make thins racial.
Conclusion
To conclude, the four frames explains how colorblind racism get manifested in American society. In the current community, whites employ the four frame, namely, naturalization, minimization of racism, naturalization as well as abstract liberalism as a means of dealing with racism in the society. Most of the experiences of the black and feels like they are being discriminated in most of the aspects such as education and employment opportunities in the current scenario throughout the country. Moreover, whites practice colorblind based on various indirect activities. On the same note, such frames employed by the whites have different implications since any form of discrimination is considered as an excuse by the blacks or exist due to laziness originating from their backgrounds. Such assumptions have negatively impacted the society hence racial biases and disparities existing in the American communities but in another manner challenging to recognize as revealed by the four frames colorblind racism. Therefore, the four frames occur concepts of colorblindness acting as the primary way American society deals with racial matter.
References
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2013). “New racism,” color-blind racism, and the future of Whiteness in America. In White out (pp. 268-281). Routledge.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2006). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2002). The linguistics of color blind racism: How to talk nasty about blacks without sounding “racist”. Critical Sociology, 28(1-2), 41-64.
Martinez, A. Y. (2009). ” The American Way”: Resisting the Empire of Force and Color-Blind Racism. College English, 71(6), 584-595.