The issue of race in America has
been a persistent and bothersome blemish on the face of the country. Racism,
discrimination, prejudice and stereotypes are all typical parts of American culture
and have been for ages. In contemporary America, it is assumed by a lot of people
that race and race relations have not only improved substantially since the
days of bus boycotts and fire-hosing in the streets, but have been completely
reformed. Some believe that racism and race related discrimination is a thing
of the past. Unfortunately, those people are wrong. Even as the nation develops
and staggering advances are being made in technology, science, industry and
social sciences, race relations in America still leave much to be desired. In
the latter portion of his book Racism Without Racists, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
talks a lot about the development and future of race relations in America. He
talks about the ways in which the race problem is growing and in which race
relations are progressing in the United States. He also talks about colorblind racism from the point of view of the black community, and the place of racial progressives in American race relations.
Ideas about race have been
established and growing in the United States for decades and even centuries.
The stereotypes and prejudices that have been commonplace in America are, by
this point, deeply ingrained in American culture. So much so, in fact,
that the minority groups who are criticized in these ideas about race subscribe
to them. Bonilla-Silva talks about black color blind racism in America. The fact
alone that this exists is an amazing development. While blacks openly and
honestly talk about race and entertain the fact that it is an issue more easily
than whites do, they still apply frames of color blind racism to certain issues
concerning race relations. For example, Bonilla-Silva noted that some blacks
still utilized naturalization of race to explain segregation. Essentially,
these people believed that it was natural for people to group themselves
together, amongst people more like themselves. Examples like this exemplify the
effect of American ideals on the thoughts of exploited racial groups. Still,
the pains of oppression are not without their strengths, as most blacks still
acknowledge and disapprove of racial travesties in the United States. For
instance, most blacks, all except one that Bonilla-Silva interviewed, supported
Affirmative Action and directly opposed the frame of abstract liberalism when
asked to elaborate. One man Edward, used a metaphor comparing white advantage to
having ice cream but no cone and advises that they simply “put it in a bowl.”
So as to say, in response to the argument that Affirmative Action is
preferential treatment, that white people need to get over it.
Another sign that hope is not completely lost, is the existence of white progressives in
the United States. White racial progressives, as Bonilla-Silva found, are
mostly young, working class and female. Their views on issues such as
affirmative action, interracial relationships and race in the job market were
distinctly oppositional to color blind racist ideals. For example, in Bonilla-Silvas surveys with them, never denied the effect of race in issues like
disproportionality in the work place. Also, they did not attempt to denounce
Affirmative Action as promoting inequality, as many whites did in surveys noted
earlier in Racism Without Racists. These people are also a reflection of
American culture in race relations. Since the days of Harriet Tubman there have
been racial progressives who believed in true racial equality, and the
existence of those types people have endured despite the veil that has been
laid over race relations over the past few decades.
As race relations in the United
States grow and change, though only in manner, not in content, some things have
remained utterly consistent. Of those things, a culture of racism has persisted
and made its way into the minds of the oppressed, and members of the majority
race who oppose racism are still active. Ultimately, race relations in the
United States still have a long way to go.
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