How To Spot Color-Blind Racism

 

Abstract Liberalism

  • Using ideas associated with liberalism (e.g. equality) in an abstract manner to oppress minorities while appearing reasonable and moral

  • Ex: “All Lives Matter”: uses ‘equality’, while ignoring the inequality of systemic racism, to mask anti-Black views as moral

Cultural Racism

  • Blaming the culture of a race to justify disparities 

  • Ex: “Black people are imprisoned at higher rates because they have criminal tendencies”: denies existence of bias in the prison system

Minimization of Racism

  • Denying that racism is the central cause of current racial disparities

  • Ex: “Everything is equal now. Black people can succeed like us if they wanted to” : denies systemic racism and portrays America as a meritocracy

Source: Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo (2010). Racism Without Racists: Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America (3rd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-44-220218-4. 

 
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