Racism without Racists: Colorblind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States

In this book Racism without Racists, Eduardo Bonilla Silva examines the idea of color blindness, which is the notion that race doesn't exist, therefore everyone is on the same playing field as far as opportunity and life chances. In this book Bonilla

Silva looks at 4 central frames- abstract liberalism, naturalization, cultural racism, and minimization of racism. In chapter 1: The Strange Enigma of Race in Contemporary America, Bonilla Silva touches on the idea that few whites in America claim to be racist, except those that show no shame (KKK members), but in reality, much of the white population is in fact racist. Many whites say they “don’t see skin color”, and feel awkward and intimidated when discussions on discrimination, slavery, and the past are brought up, so they often like to just diminish the idea of race all together. The fact is that the white community gets better education, income, housing and treatment because race does matter. In chapter 2 Bonilla Silva discusses the central frames of color blind racism. The first frame is abstract liberalism which is “pull yourself up from your bootstraps” idea that uses ideas associated with political and economic liberalism. Bonilla Silva states “By framing race-related issues in the language of liberalism, white can appear reasonable and moral”. The second frame is naturalization, which allows whites to suggest that natural occurrences are due to racial phenomena. A quote often used with this frame is “that’s just the way things are”. The third frame is cultural racism which are culturally based arguments to criticize a minority group. The last frame is the minimization of racism which insists that racism no longer effects minority’s life chances. Some quotes often used with this frame are “It’s better now than in the past.” Or “There is discrimination but there are plenty of jobs out there”. Chapter 3 is called The Style of Color Blindness: How to Talk Nasty about Minorities without Sounding Racist. In this chapter Bonilla Silva examines the basic style of color blindness. He looks at the Civil Rights era and examines the use of words such as “nigger” and “spic”. He also looks deeper into the term “I’m not prejudiced, but…” which is a common phrase amongst white people and is usually followed by “one of my closest friends is black”. Chapter 4 was a very interesting chapter entitles I Didn’t Get That Job Because of A Black Man. In this chapter Bonilla Silva looks at how storytelling is very important when it comes to communication, and also a key part to color blind racism. Sharing a story with a friend about a person from another race can alter their perception of that race as a whole, little do people know. Overall, I enjoyed this book very much and I think that Bonilla Silva is very insightful.