"Some of my Best Friends are White.."

Bonilla-Silva’s writings are inclusive of attitudes in the post-civil rights era, race, racial structure and racial ideology, the central frames and styles of color-blind racism and much, much more. In Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s thought provoking work Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States, many contexts regarding the subtle, but apparent discrimination and exclusion displayed by our society in this post-civil rights age. Nobody wants to be labeled as a racist although they may do or say things that prove otherwise. Most people use colorblind language to get around the fact that what they are saying is discriminatory. Many claim that they don’t see color, just people and they go on as if judgment by skin color, socioeconomic status, and education doesn't exist anymore.

Unfortunately the “race issues” in this country are not non-existent and haven’t been resolved they have just taken on a different tone. “Most whites believe that if blacks and other minorities would stop thinking about the past, work hard, and complain less (particularly about racial discrimination), then Americans of all hues could “all get along.” (Bonilla-Silva, E.) Many whites in America who are unlikely to ever experience the drawbacks that minorities face as a result of race, can effectively ignore racism in American life, justify the present-day societal order, and feel more content with a their reasonably advantaged standing in society. It seems as though whites do not recognize discrimination as a crucial factor in determining the opportunities and life chances of minority groups.

The chapter that was most relevant and relatable, in my opinion was chapter 3, The Style of Color Blindness: How to Talk Nasty about Minorities without Sounding Racist. During class discussion in Prof. Simon Weffers course we discussed the many phrases an individual could use to make racist, colorblind statements to essentially show ones disassociation with a particular group of people, but be sensitive about it at the same time. For instance, an individual can use semantic moves, better known as discreet language to say how they feel about a particular group of people and situations without sounding racist. Phrases like “I’m not black, so I don’t know”, “Some of my best friends are black” or “No offense, but…” all refer to linguistic manners and rhetorical strategies (or race talk) that are truly contradictory, but subtle. These semantic moves have been adapted by everyone and are used to evade direct racial discourse but efficiently defend racial privilege.

The main idea behind these ideologies and identifications of semantic moves, race talk and other tools used by mostly whites to attempt to repair racial gaps and to reestablish a color-blind image is clear. People believe that racism in this post-civil rights, post-Jim Crow era is no longer an issue and that it is a belief that very few if any at all still embrace. But Bonilla-Silva submits that racism, although it is mildly sugar coated is still alive. While colorblindness sounds like a good idea and a start to elimination racism it is actually a crutch to allow racist individuals not seem so racist at all. It allows for racist whites and non-blacks to continue to keep blacks enslaved and beneath them. It is a tool to maintain the oppression of the black race and ignore the fact that racism is not a problem of the past, but of the present as well. 

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