Colorblind racism is basically the
disregarding of race as a factor in society. Its aims to make skin color irrelevant
in hopes to eliminate racial discrimination. However, colorblind racism is
still just that, racism. Bonilla-Silvia argues that colorblind racism has hit a
new time high especially with the help of President Obama’s “anti-race” stance
during his campaign. I would have to agree with his argument that colorblind
racism is running rampant since I am constantly surprised by how often I hear people
in a deliberate attempt to not sound racist, ending up sounding completely
racist. Bonilla-Silvia names four frames that make up colorblind racism:
abstract liberalism, naturalism, cultural liberalism, and minimization. Chances
are that you have actually heard multiple examples of these 4 frames of color
blind racism and not even known it.
The first of the frames is abstract
liberalism. Abstract liberalism involves using ideas associated with political
liberalism and economic liberalism in an abstract manner to explain racial
matters (Bonilla-Silva 29). What that means broken down is that racial issues
are explained through a liberalistic standpoint. That means every individual
should make their own choices and policies such as affirmative action are
detrimental to achieving equality. Affirmative action like policies are seen as
giving minorities an unfair advantage over white people who do not receive
similar benefits from any similar policies that would be meant to specifically
aid them as well. Also, it is seen as a hindrance to white peoples individual
ability to freely make choices in gaining access to segregated institutions or
neighborhoods on account that they are white.
The second frame is naturalization.
Naturalization is a frame that allows white to explain away racial phenomena by
suggesting they are natural occurrences (Bonilla-Silva, 28). This basically
boils down to racism actually being a natural human biological/psychological
behavior that we all have in common. This embraces ideas such as minorities and
whites all grouping up into their own separate areas due to sharing similar
traits with one another. It supports that people that share similar characteristics
with one another will be naturally drawn toward one another. Their view on
racism is that it is natural and because minorities also do it as much as white
people do, it is really nonracist. People who say things regarding racism such
as “Well, that’s just how humans work.” is a prime example of the frame of
naturalization.
The third frame is cultural racism.
Cultural racism is a frame that relies on culturally based arguments to explain
the standing of minorities in society (Bonilla-Silva, 28). This frame basically
claims that stereotypes that go with all members of certain minorities should be
blamed by their specific culture. Examples of the cultural racism are comments
such as “black people are not good at maintaining jobs” or jokes like “You know
you’re fu*ked when the Asian says, “Shit” during the test”. Personally, this is
one the most common frames of colorblind racism I have come across out of all
of the others frames.
The fourth and last frame is
minimization. Minimization of racism is a frame that suggests discrimination is
no longer a central factor affecting minorities’ life chances (Bonilla-Silva,
29). Basically, minimization is saying that everyone, more or less, has the
same life chances as the next person regardless of race. It takes the issues of
race/discrimination and claims that they are no longer much of a problem in the
world of today. It can even play out the mention of racial discrimination as
just an excuse that can be made by minorities. Comments such as “Well, it’s
better now than in the past” or “Yeah, there they go playing the race card
again!” are examples of the frame of minimization.
Chances are that upon hearing the
definitions of the four different frames of color blind racism and general
description of what they are, you will realize how common colorblind racism is
today. , it will probably not be that difficult to remember the last time you
heard or experienced instances of colorblind racism. Though while trying to
not sound racist in making subtle comments about races, or cracking a “casual”
racist joke, it is still is just as racist as any racist comment can be. Think
about that the next time you go out, and you will realize that racism (namely
color blind racism) is still going strong to this day. Just because we have a
black president, does not mean racism is completely gone.
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