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A review by res_curans
Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
2.0
Racism Without Racists argues that, after the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and the abolition of Jim Crow, racism has not gone away, but merely gone underground, using more covert methods to maintain the status quo. He calls these methods collectively “colorblind racism” — a set of racist practices and mythologies that appear nonracial, but which serve to perpetuate the state of race in the U.S.
He identifies and debunks a lot of the common myths that people repeat, such as “race just isn’t a big deal anymore” and “a black person stole my job.” But some of the colorblind-racist “strategies” he identifies are more like ideologies, such as liberal economics. So I think there are some is-ought problems when, for example, he says an ideology preserves the status quo, but are his leftist politics and political correctness the necessary solution?
White Fragility did a better job of illustrating specific ways that “colorblind” racism actually plays out - this book seemed bloated with too much on the “is” and not enough argument on the “ought.” The analysis seemed targeted primarily to people who already agree with him, especially when it comes to the political content. I respect the work that went into this - this is by far the most academic of the antiracist literature I’ve read thus far - but I didn’t find much of value personally.
Honestly, what I'm looking for is a knock-down argument that I can hand to my conservative relatives to dismantle their worldview, but I haven't found one yet.
He identifies and debunks a lot of the common myths that people repeat, such as “race just isn’t a big deal anymore” and “a black person stole my job.” But some of the colorblind-racist “strategies” he identifies are more like ideologies, such as liberal economics. So I think there are some is-ought problems when, for example, he says an ideology preserves the status quo, but are his leftist politics and political correctness the necessary solution?
White Fragility did a better job of illustrating specific ways that “colorblind” racism actually plays out - this book seemed bloated with too much on the “is” and not enough argument on the “ought.” The analysis seemed targeted primarily to people who already agree with him, especially when it comes to the political content. I respect the work that went into this - this is by far the most academic of the antiracist literature I’ve read thus far - but I didn’t find much of value personally.
Honestly, what I'm looking for is a knock-down argument that I can hand to my conservative relatives to dismantle their worldview, but I haven't found one yet.