Racism without Racists: Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States: Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America

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Climate change and racism are two of the biggest challenges of the 21st Century. They are also strongly intertwined. There is a stark divide between who has caused climate change and who is suffering its effects. People of colour across the Global South are those who will be most affected by the climate crisis, even though their carbon footprints are generally very low. Similar racial divides exist within nations too, due to profound structural inequalities laid down by a long legacy of unequal power relationships. Determining the manner in which different types of racism shape health disparities is essential for counteracting the effects of modern racist ideology and promoting health equity. Although racism is certainly at the heart of inequality in outcomes related to COVID-19, many white Americans do not see themselves as participating in or perpetuating a racist social system. As such, it is necessary to elaborate the myriad ways that racism persists in the United States and contributes to social and health inequality. It is simply not enough to state that racism exists. What’s going on here is that people’s implicit attitudes are altering their perception of what skills and qualifications are needed for a job. People judged that a particular qualification was relevant only because they had sexist assumptions, about women and policing. But they couldn’t detect the processes at work in them. But those disparities are invisible to many whites, who often see themselves as victims of discrimination, writes Jamelle Bouie of Slate magazine in a recent essay, “The Gulf That Divides Us.” The only blight on this book is that it does, unfortunately, contain some transphobia. I cringed when I read this: “Henrietta, a transsexual school teacher in his fifties...” Ouch. Maybe it stands out so starkly in contrast to the the rest of the book in which the author is so right on, but this purposeful misgendering was just not cool (also, does Henrietta identify as "transsexual," or is that the author's label?). As is perhaps evidenced by that example, the book is not particularly intersectional—but then, it never claimed to be, as it focuses on race specifically. At times the book can get a bit “academic,” but it isn’t of the dry sort, just the detailed.

The knife fight experiment hints at the language gap. Some whites confine racism to intentional displays of racial hostility. It’s the Ku Klux Klan, racial slurs in public, something “bad” that people do. We hear a lot about ‘systemic racism’ these days. For anyone serious about understanding what it means and how it works, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s classic Racism without Racists is essential reading. Thomas A. Guglielmo But there are many dimensions to racism. The most visible is inter-personal racism, which is ugly and all-too familiar. At its most obvious, this would include racist graffiti, online abuse, or racist chanting at football matches. Much of it is less overt than that, a matter of prejudice and stereotyping. In the movie “The Godfather,” the character of Michael Corleone, played by Al Pacino, hatches an audacious plan to kill a mobster and a crooked cop who tried to kill his father. Michael’s elders scoff at his plans because they believe his judgment is clouded by anger. But in a line that would define his ruthless approach to wielding power, Michael tells them:There are various techniques scientists use to measure implicit attitudes. One of the most popular is the Implicit Association Test. You can do such a test yourself; the researchers at Project Implicit have made many available on the web (including one that tests for implicit associations with regard to Aboriginal and white Australians). Professor Bonilla-Silva’s Racism without Racists is a seminal text in the study of race and racism. Racism without Racists is theoretically rich, empirically grounded, and suitable for a range of undergraduate and graduate courses. Always current, the sixth edition includes a new chapter on systemic racism that further strengthens an already excellent text. Those who read and study Racism without Racists will be better equipped to identify and refute the unceasing deluge of color-blind nonsense presented as intelligent thought on racial matters. I’ve assigned Racism without Racists to my students for more than a decade, and each semester students share with me the transformative impact it had on both their intellectual and personal development. As people talk about what the grand jury’s decision in Ferguson means, Bonilla-Silva and others say it’s time for Americans to update their language on racism to reflect what it has become and not what it used to be. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva is one of the most influential, insightful, and engaging scholars writing on race. His pathbreaking book, now in its sixth edition, continues to be the gold standard for understanding the dynamics of racism and developing a blueprint for what Whites and people of color must do to dismantle white supremacy and create a more ‘humane, inclusive, and democratic’ world. Rogelio Sáenz It's actually a much more academic work than I expected it to be. When my wife recommended it to me she didn't say much about it, so I went in thinking it was going to be more of a mass-market explanation of contemporary racism--a sort of Brief History of Time for American social structures--but it's actually an analysis of two studies conducted on racial attitudes in Americans, one on adults in Detroit and one on college students. The book thus repeatedly refers to quotes from the surveyed individuals to illustrate its points, which are pretty enlightening.

for researchers and activists alike to provide counter-ideological arguments to each of the frames of color-blind racism. Professor Bonilla-Silva’s Racism without Racists is a seminal text in the study of race and racism. Racism without Racists is theoretically rich, empirically grounded, and suitable for a range of undergraduate and graduate courses. Always current, the sixth edition includes a new chapter on systemic racism that further strengthens an already excellent text. Those who read and study Racism without Racists will be better equipped to identify and refute the unceasing deluge of color-blind nonsense presented as intelligent thought on racial matters. I’ve assigned Racism without Racists to my students for more than a decade, and each semester students share with me the transformative impact it had on both their intellectual and personal development. Ted ThornhillAn Implicit Association Test measures speed in associating pairs of concepts. For instance, you might press one key if presented either with a picture of an Aboriginal face or with the word for a positive concept (“laughter”; “wonderful”; “joy”) and another key if presented with a white face or the word for a negative concept (“pain”; “awful”; “evil”). Because the activation of the stereotype can be unconscious, and because its effects can be unconscious, we may not know that, or how, it is altering our behaviour. We may confabulate, as psychologists say, a good reason for what we are doing, when in fact the explanation is a bad reason, or no reason at all. For style he relies on a much more traditional discourse analysis, but one which really resonate with my own interviews of people when it turns to the subject of race. Here is the list: