Color-Blind Racism

Racism continues to be an issue that causes a great deal of tension in the United States. While some believe that we are living in a post-racial society, others are aware that racism can take different forms in this day and age. In White Bound: Nationalists, Antiracists, and the Shared Meanings of Race, author Matthew Hughey tackles the topic of racism in a unique way. Hughey focuses on how the members of the two groups that he conducted the study on conceptualize their whiteness and how that relates to racism. Hughey spend a little over one year conducting his research for this project. He attended meetings that these two organizations held and interview individual members in order to gauge how they think about their whiteness in relation to other races.

Some might believe that we are done with the dog days we say stuff like, “Oh there is no more racism,” or “Racism is over we have a black president now.” In addition, just because we have a black president does not mean racism is over, one person cannot make racism end, something that has been occurring for various centuries since the first ship arrived to Jamestown in 1607. As we have seen over and over these ongoing trends of dehumanizing people of color and how that is affecting them now. If you do not believe that racism and segregation does not exist anymore well black people where there are unstable social and economically and black were out of the housing market, where they could not buy a home where white people lived. (The House We

“...Much of the recent crime increase threatens the vitality of America’s cities–and thousands of lives–it is not, in itself, the greatest danger in today’s war on cops. The greatest danger lies, rather, in the delegitimation of law and order itself’ (Mac Donald). In the book “The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe,” published in the year of 2016, author Heather Mac Donald provides credible evidence to expand on her viewpoint of our country’s current criminal crisis. In addition to “The War on Cops, Mac Donald has written two other books. Her works “Are Cops Racist?” of 2003 and “The Burden of Bad Ideas: How Modern Intellectuals Misshape Our Society” of 2000 contain ideas similar to those expressed in “The War on Cops.” The powerful stance Mac Donald takes on certain themes expressed throughout “The War on Cops” direct the reader’s understanding towards the flaws of America’s governmental systems, revealing the backstory and complexity of racism and criminal justice behind our “war on cops.”

Throughout the ages racial inequality and social injustice have been prevalent. Equality and justice play a large part in defining our social and internal belonging, as it helps forge connections with those around us. However though the centuries racial equality and social; justice have been hard to achieve, even now in the modern era. However, both social justice and racial equality have made large steps in the right direction; change has occurred but racial inequality still exists. Social conventions and generational behaviour becomes one of the largest obstacles when facing any type of change; and racial equality is no different.

Everyday the future in America looks brighter for the issues dealing with race and identity. Brave souls are not letting racism, class discrimination, or sexism hold them back anymore. Furthermore, the fight for a balanced society that pushes for equality is on the horizon. As we close on an era, based on purely the skin of the person, we need to analyze the impacts of the Ethnicity paradigm and Class paradigm on politics of the 20th century. Race and Ethnicity are used interchangeable in everyday conversation, however; they are not the same. In Howard Winant and Michael Omi, Racial Formation book, they outline in the first few chapters the weakness of examining race based on the ethnicity/ class paradigm. Although the paradigms

This article focuses on the color-blind ideology that allows white people to participate in and appropriate hip-hop culture. Rodriquez notes that they do so by using the guise of inclusivity of all races to justify their participation in hip hop and to adapt characteristics of the culture without respecting Black identity. He uses his own interviews of several white audience members of hip hop concerts who identified as participants of hip hop culture. Rodriquez identifies two groups resulting from social collectivity to reinforce his argument: consciously collective white groups, who actively reinforce racial segregation and passively collective white groups, who unknowingly unite and reinforce systematic racism through their adherence to color-blind ideology. The participants of his research are part of the latter, who unconsciously reinforce systematic racism through treating cultural objects, namely aspects of hip hop culture, as shareable products and experiences. Rodriquez’s interviews demonstrate that color-blind ideology enables white people to

Race is one the most sensitive and controversial topics of our time. As kids, we were taught that racism has gotten better as times has passed. However, the author, Michelle Alexander, of The New Jim Crow proposes the argument that racism has not gotten better, but the form of racism that we known in textbooks is not the racism we experience today. Michelle Alexander has countless amounts of plausible arguments, but she has failed to be a credible author, since she doesn’t give enough citations or evidence for her argument to convince people who may not have prior agreement with her agreement..

Although blatant acts of racism have diminished since the 1900’s, acts of casual racism are currently predominant in America. In the film, Get Out, written and directed by Jordan Peele, Peele claims that acts of casual racism are aimed at ethnic minorities. Peele begins to build his credibility by addressing issues of casual racism in the text, targeting the White liberals as his audience, using constraints to encourage empathy for his characters, and by being influenced to create Get Out from the controversial issue of America being a “post-racial” society.

Racial inequality has plagued our society for centuries and has been described as a “black eye” on American history. It wasn’t until the passing of The Civil Rights Act of 1965 that minorities were given equal protection under the law. This was a crucial step on our society’s road to reconciling this injustice. However, the effects of past racial inequality are still visible to this day, and our society still wrestles with how to solve this issue. In 1965, President Lyndon B Johnson said: “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say you are free to compete with all the others, and still just believe that you have been completely fair. This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity––not legal equity but human ability––not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result” (Garrison-Wade & Lewis, 2003). That same year, President Johnson signed an executive order mandating government contractors “take affirmative action” in

America and its people have worked hard to create a home in which everyone is treated, and feels equal. We’ve fought wars, held protests, and lost many lives in situations where we were fighting for fair treatment. After all of these sacrifices, it's safe to say that Americans have the right to love, and cherish the equality that their home presents them with, but to an extent. Equality in society, government, and basic human interactions should always be kept, and held with great importance. However, we also need to keep in mind that we are not the same people. This is where the government in the story, ‘’Harrison Bergeron,’’ gets out of hand. They tried to make their citizens equal by making them the same which prevents

The novel Black Boy by Richard Wright exhibits the theme of race and violence. Wright goes beyond his life and digs deep in the existence of his very human being. Over the course of the vast drama of hatred, fear, and oppression, he experiences great fear of hunger and poverty. He reveals how he felt and acted in his eyes of a Negro in a white society. Throughout the work, Richard observes the deleterious effects of racism not only as it affects relations between whites and blacks, but also relations among blacks themselves. Black Boy, however, explores racism not only as an odious belief held by odious people, but also as an insidious problem knit into the very fabric of society as a whole.

The major thesis in this book, are broken down into two components. The first is how we define racism, and the impact that definition has on how we see and understand racism. Dr. Beverly Tatum chooses to use the definition given by “David Wellman that defines racism as a system of advantages based on race” (1470). This definition of racism helps to establish Dr. Tatum’s theories of racial injustice and the advantages either willingly or unwillingly that white privilege plays in our society today. The second major thesis in this book is the significant role that a racial identity has in our society. How we see others have an impact on how we create laws and access to quality education, financial and social resources. Furthermore, how

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MOUND BAYOU FROM THE LATE 19th TO THE EARLY 21st CENTURY?

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird shows how racism affected people in the 1930’s and how terrible people were treated. Since then, things have changed and racism is not a problem. Racism has changed drastically since the 1930’s; now we do not have a big problem compared to how big of a problem it was in the 30’s. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, we learn how racism affected people, now, things have changed and racism doesn’t affect people as much, because race is a social construct, is not as relevant today and we have developed acceptance of every race. Now, race has changed, but even back in the 1930’s, race had to be taught.

In my daily life, one of the things that I am very conscious about is the color of my skin and my background. This is because of the different types of stereotypes that I may be associated with. In the article, “Levels of Racism: A Theoretic Framework and a Gardener’s Tale” by Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, she talks about the social construct of race and its impact on racism. Dr. Jones broke down racism into three levels: institutionalized racism, personally mediated racism, and internalized racism. She also suggested that the reason why there is inequality in the United States is due to the government not being concerned about equality. I think that racism will continue to occur as long as there is inequality.