Customer Reviews

Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I decided to purchase this book after reading a journal article by Dr. Bonilla-Silva in which he critiqued the tendency among some social scientists to take the "social construction of race" arguments to extreme and ridiculous degrees. For example, among some guilty white liberal sociologists and anthropologists the fact that race is a "social construction" has been misused to argue that, somehow, ethnicity doesn't really exist either and that those who claim an ethnic identity are guilty of "reifying race." This ridiculous argument is made by people who are too ignorant to realize that "race" and "ethnicity" are two entirely different concepts. Additionally, while race is indeed a socially-defined variable that differs across nations and societies and throughout time, one can not deny the social importance of race as a factor in American (or any other) society.

After reading that article by Bonilla-Silva, I was excited to take a look at "Racism Without Racists." In plain and simple language, Bonilla-Silva analyzes the racial rhetoric so common among white Americans in the post-Civil Rights era. How many times have you heard a white person utter the passive-aggressive qualifier of "I'm not a racist, but..."? or "I'm not prejudiced, but..."? Such phrases are used as intended buffers to qualify hostile, bigoted, racist, and/or angry statements about people of color - and they are used all the time. Even white teachers in my high school frequently issued these kind of prejudiced statements in class.

Another common tendency in the post-Civil Rights era is to automatically link "people of color" with "unqualified" and "whites" to "qualified." Bonilla-Silva analyzes this trend as well. Any time a non-white person occupies a position of authority, prestige, or power, they come under suspicion of getting a "free ride" or "handout." The ironic thing about this is that, since its inception, affirmative action has benefitted middle-class white females more than any other group in American society. White females account for approximately 80 percent of affirmative action's beneficiaries since the policies were originated in the early 1970s. Yet, how often do you hear white women angrily moaning that they are enjoying "free rides" and "hand outs" at the expense of white males?

Yet another one of my favorite arguments is the "Why can't we all just be Americans?" song and dance. This line is ususally uttered in conjunction with white anger about things such as Black History Month, the Puerto Rican Parade, Hispanic Heritage Month, or other public displays of non-white ethnic heritage. The commonplace rhetoric is to accuse such events as being "anti-white." In other words, Black History Month and the Puerto Rican Parade are "anti-white" and "racist" because "we don't have a 'white history month' or 'white parade." Ironically enough, white folks fail to become unglued over events like the St. Patrick's Day Parade, Irish-American Heritage Month, the Columbus Day Parade (which is, for all intents and purposes an Italian-American festivity), Jewish History Month, or any of the other numerous ethnic events honoring Greek, Polish, Russian, German, French, Cajun, Scottish and any other European heritage. A Puerto Rican Parade is "racist" and "anti-white", yet the St. Patrick's Day Parade is fine and acceptable...and Puerto Rico is part of the United States, while Ireland is not! Go figure.

This book hits the nail on the head. The Civil Rights legacy has brandished overt, explicitly racist sentiments as taboo and socially unacceptable. The result has been a reconfiguration of racial rhetoric, where people boldly declare that they "are not racists," construct whiteness as a social disadvantage, and white U.S.-born citizens have allegedly become an "oppressed majority" (in Rush Limbaugh's own terms). Bonilla-Silva's analysis is dead-on and for those who consciously or unconsciously subscribe to the rhetoric that the author critiques, well, this book is sure to rile their emotions.

This book may annoy, irritate, and even infuriate some, but if any of these emotions arise, you might ask yourself "why do I feel so defensive?"...and I promise, you will gather a bit of enlightment. The book portrays the perspective of minority peoples in a way that will open your eyes. It IS one-sided, but not because the author is a "racist", rather, he feels (it's in his Author's Note) that enough books are written ABOUT minorities from a "white perspective" view of the world, so he thought he would write a book that showed a distinct minority perspective on "white" culture. It is not meant to arise aggression, it is written to give realizations and enhance communications between the races.

This is a powerful, clearly written and argued book on the nature of racism in contemporary America! I have not read many other books by social scientists that cut through the chase and tell it as it is. His claim, that there is a new game in town (he labels it "color-blind racism"), is backed up by interviews with young and old Americans. I STRONGLY endorse this book and will check out all the other books written by this scholar who represents a refreshing voice in the usually boring, pompous,
and unengaged work of academics in the USA.

As the author Bonilla-Silva emphasizes repeatedly, this book does not intend to blame whites for being racist. This books attempts to illustrate how whites and blacks are constructed and positioned differently in relation to the past history of slavery and the newer form of racial ideology which supports the white privilege in the age of color blindness. I couldn't agree more with many of the arguments he has made throughout the book. I think this can make a great textbook for college courses.

For white readers, the argument that the racism continues to influence racial minorities' lives may not be convincing because, as Bonilla-Silva notes, they tend to subscribe the notion that racism is a thing of the past. I wish he had provided more "empirical" and "social scientific" evidence of how color-blind racism continues to have a negative impact on the lives of people of color today to make his argument much more convincing. (Just accept the blacks' personal testomony that "racism is still pervasive and affect us" may make this book sound like one-sided).

In "Racism Without Racists", Bonilla-Silva has effectively argued that, far from being a color-blind society, America is still subjected to an ideology of white supremacy with the traditional ideology of Jim Crow being replaced with, what he calls, "Colorblind Racism". He has demonstrated that most whites believe in the tenets of colorblind racism and have developed communication techniques in order to state their anti-black views as not to appear racist and to provide ostensibly non-racist reasons for their positions. Further, he shows how most white rationalize all white social networks while claiming to be colorblind. In concluding the portion of the book where he discusses how whites are affected by colorblind racism, he identifies the segment of the white population who are least likely to be adherents of colorblind racism.

Moreover, he notes that although elements of colorblind racism has influenced the way that blacks view race in America, he demonstrates that they have developed an oppositional ideology which recognizes that racism, past and present, is largely the reason why blacks are in the position they are today. Lastly, Bonilla-Silva predicts that race relations are becoming Latin-America like with nationalist appeals becoming more common place with discussion of race being totally excluded from public discourse making it harder than ever to combat racism. He also identifies the racial groups he sees will occupy the position of "honorary whites" in the future racial strata which will serve as a buffer between racial conflicts between the groups categorized as "white" and "black". In the penultimate chapter, he responds to criticisms he received from readers of the first addition. He concludes by advocating a new civil rights movement incorporating class and gender with the goal of equality of results as well as offering strategy for how this movement can develop and what they can do to defeat this new ideology of racism.

This book is incredibly important for understanding how modern day racism operates and is maintained in society. This is a must read for those wishing to create a society based on equality and racial equity.

This review refers to the second edition of the book.

After reading some of the reviews for this book, I was looking forward to reading it.
The data for this book come primarily from surveys of 627 college students, and 400 adults from the Detroit area and much of the book includes the verbatim responses of the survey participants. Although the author states that rhetorical incoherence is part of all natural speech, to read most of these answers is mind boggling. Not one person seems to be able to express themselves in a clear sentence without `um, I don't know, you know, I guess, it's like, you know'. It got so annoying, I ended up reading only the author's `Conclusion' at the end of each chapter.
The book contains valid points and I don't mean to diminish the author's effort, but summarizing the survey answers in a clear way could have made this book easier to read and more effective.

Bonilla-Silva takes on one of the most pervasive myths in our society by effectively deconstructing and points out the FACT that we have NOT reached a TRUE pluralist (AKA multicultural) society. He also shows that the only thing that's changed when it comes to race and racism in our society is how we talk about it. (Whites have especially changed in this regard.) This is a VERY useful book, esp. in the "Age of Obama."

Racism without Racists is a must read for anyone wanting to understand the topography of American race relations. Highly recommended to educators and policy makers.

This is a powerful, clearly written and argued book on the nature of racism in contemporary America! I have not read many other books by social scientists that cut through the chase and tell it as it is. His claim, that there is a new game in town (he labels it "color-blind racism"), is backed up by interviews with young and old Americans. I STRONGLY endorse this book and will check out all the other books written by this scholar who represents a refreshing voice in the usually boring, pompous, and unengaged work of academics in the USA.

Whoever wrote this book is dumb. How can a person be racist yet not hate anyone? The only way would be if he / she was going to date a black / white person if he / she was black or white. It is natural for people to choose their own as dating / partner mates / having children with. But to say that white people don't hate black people is BS.

I used to listen to that BS talk show hosted by an half uncle tom called Jesse Lee Peterson. Everything he says that's happening within the black community is half right. But when this dummy says that the CIA gestapo (worse than the SS) isn't causing problems and that racism / the homosexual leftist media isn't responsible for the stupidness happening in the black community he's crazy.

I lived with all white people for 9 whole months and they all see you as sub-human. I don't care how many half breed babies they poop out, no matter how many of them listen to hip hop (controlled by Jewish Zionists Leftists prove me wrong by pointing out any blacks that own any major record publishing companies like it matters cause everyone downloads / listens music for free). Some of the most racist red necks listen to hip hop even Neo-Nazis listen to hip hop.