A review by inkerly
Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
4.0
This book is great to be paired with How to Be an AntiRacist. If the latter is a breakdown of why AntiRacism is the only stance that is acceptable in this false notion of a postracial America, Racism without Racists is the evidence Eduardo Bonilla-Silva wields to prove just how behind we are — white people especially — in equalizing the equity and opportunities for all races, and how our era of “postracial colorblindness” is harming black and brown people more than not.
This book feels more like a sociology textbook than a reading. Each chapter poses a question, summarizes the survey cases conducted by Silva, and at the end of each chapter Silva presents his conclusions on whether or not his study supports the hypothetical question raised. In Chapter two for example, Silva explores the many ways white people voice their dissent for AntiRacist policies “under the guise of colorblindness”. Many white subjects are asked about their views on affirmative action and Silva analyzes the typical talking points of these white people and makes the argument that the tactics and language of white self-proclaimed “progressives” are often employed to soften the racist or prejudiced beliefs that they implicitly have towards black people and affirmative action.
It started off as very fascinating, as a black person, to get to “peek into” the mindset of white liberals and/or moderate people and get a sociologist’s perspective on what their coded language means — honestly it felt like “decoding” white people, LOL. But I’m not sure if this is necessarily a book that could lend itself to broader discussion. By that I mean, the book kind of just says “These findings show that white people say this but actually mean this—-“ there’s really no room for debate or discourse. In reading these survey accounts, I found myself thinking about the Youtube channel Jubilee and how they do a fantastic job of holding segments like “Middle Ground” and “Do All [insert race] think the same?” with the same intentions as Silva but in a much more open panel format. I think compartmentalizing his research in a textbook-like book with little background explanation of the people, and structure of the surveys/studies hurt the book’s credibility actually. I think this information would have been better presented in a documentary or video series so we can see and hear and interpret the subjects and experimental results for ourselves.
Chapter 10 was also probably the most anticipated chapter of the book. It’s the Obama chapter, and it seeks to explain why we went from an Obamerica to a Trump’s America and what that really says about society. To my surprise I learned a lot of facts about the Obama administration and how truly ineffectual and center-right Obama’s policies were, as told by Silva. The Pakistan bombings, Lack of diversity in senior Obama staff positions, centrality of Obamacare that did more to boost Aetna’s stock value than really democratize health care for Americans, and the Obama’s Bill Cosby-ish remarks in the past towards black civilians on needing to “pull up their pants” , “stop watching too much tv” , “stop looting”, and just “pick themselves up by their bootstraps “.
Yikes.
Also Silva goes into depth why Hillary’s campaign was doomed to begin with and how Trumps campaign was the pinnacle of a colorblind but hella racist movement. Now looking back it’s obvious to see, but it’s remarkable how Silva, days after Trumps election, could see it plain as day.
I’ll have to finish the notes for this book later on but 4/5 stars. This book should really be a documentary or docuseries instead of a book but I appreciate it nonetheless
This book feels more like a sociology textbook than a reading. Each chapter poses a question, summarizes the survey cases conducted by Silva, and at the end of each chapter Silva presents his conclusions on whether or not his study supports the hypothetical question raised. In Chapter two for example, Silva explores the many ways white people voice their dissent for AntiRacist policies “under the guise of colorblindness”. Many white subjects are asked about their views on affirmative action and Silva analyzes the typical talking points of these white people and makes the argument that the tactics and language of white self-proclaimed “progressives” are often employed to soften the racist or prejudiced beliefs that they implicitly have towards black people and affirmative action.
It started off as very fascinating, as a black person, to get to “peek into” the mindset of white liberals and/or moderate people and get a sociologist’s perspective on what their coded language means — honestly it felt like “decoding” white people, LOL. But I’m not sure if this is necessarily a book that could lend itself to broader discussion. By that I mean, the book kind of just says “These findings show that white people say this but actually mean this—-“ there’s really no room for debate or discourse. In reading these survey accounts, I found myself thinking about the Youtube channel Jubilee and how they do a fantastic job of holding segments like “Middle Ground” and “Do All [insert race] think the same?” with the same intentions as Silva but in a much more open panel format. I think compartmentalizing his research in a textbook-like book with little background explanation of the people, and structure of the surveys/studies hurt the book’s credibility actually. I think this information would have been better presented in a documentary or video series so we can see and hear and interpret the subjects and experimental results for ourselves.
Chapter 10 was also probably the most anticipated chapter of the book. It’s the Obama chapter, and it seeks to explain why we went from an Obamerica to a Trump’s America and what that really says about society. To my surprise I learned a lot of facts about the Obama administration and how truly ineffectual and center-right Obama’s policies were, as told by Silva. The Pakistan bombings, Lack of diversity in senior Obama staff positions, centrality of Obamacare that did more to boost Aetna’s stock value than really democratize health care for Americans, and the Obama’s Bill Cosby-ish remarks in the past towards black civilians on needing to “pull up their pants” , “stop watching too much tv” , “stop looting”, and just “pick themselves up by their bootstraps “.
Yikes.
Also Silva goes into depth why Hillary’s campaign was doomed to begin with and how Trumps campaign was the pinnacle of a colorblind but hella racist movement. Now looking back it’s obvious to see, but it’s remarkable how Silva, days after Trumps election, could see it plain as day.
I’ll have to finish the notes for this book later on but 4/5 stars. This book should really be a documentary or docuseries instead of a book but I appreciate it nonetheless