As the
title suggests, there are several ways that racism seeps out of a color-blind façade
which denigrates minorities while praising and solidifying, in the case of
Bonilla-Silva’s book Racism without
Racists, whites both old and young.
Color-blindness is an ideology that people do not take race into account
in their social interactions, by not “seeing race” but “seeing people,” racism
is no longer a factor in whites’ interactions with minorities. This is clearly,
however, not the case as racism does exist even if very few people claim to be
racists. Actions are very important, but color-blind racism often comes through
in the form of verbal interactions both amongst races, amongst the majority,
and in the public domain.
There
are several storylines that whites surely use amongst themselves, but most
clearly used when asked to discuss race, that fit into the self-serving bias.
The fundamental attribution error is a cognitive bias, or error in thinking,
that attributes the failures of others to their personalities or actions, and
attributes others’ successes to situations, rather than realizing the role of
the environment and it’s potential negative effects on a person’s status. In
this case, whites tell several “stories” that are very racist, and occur
because of this fundamental attribution error. The following stories is each
one of these cases: “If other minorities have succeeded (Italians, Jews, etc.),
why haven’t Blacks?” and “Blacks are the racist ones.”
One
blatantly racist statement is a prime example of the fundamental attribution
error. When a white person says that if one minority has been able to “overcome
discrimination” at a higher level than Blacks, this implied something much
more. This implies that all minorities have the same start, at the bottom, and
can escape structural racism with a bit of hard work and effort. This puts the
blame on Blacks, when they have been the most disadvantaged group historically,
and have not found much improvement in their situation in comparison with other
minorities, likely due to their somatic and geographical distance from the
dominant group. They are most discriminated against, putting it simply, because
they are the least white. When someone says something that blames them for not
overcoming their discrimination, they do not take into account how relative to
other groups, Blacks have the longest way to go to gain structural equality.
One
other way to defend themselves, which is another cognitive bias, is to blame
the other group, in this case saying that Blacks are racist and always “cry
racism” to get benefits from services such as welfare and affirmative action.
This takes the responsibility off of whites for being racist; they can claim
that they don’t do anything to promulgate racism, but Blacks keep bringing up
the race issue making them the racist ones. Whites also resent Blacks for
affirmative actions, asserting that they lose their jobs to other people they
view as less qualified, on the account of race. They do not want to pay taxes
for welfare that people of all races use, and do not take into account that
Blacks and minorities did not have the same ‘start’ and advantages they may
have had, and this aid may help them in ways that are vital to survival and
creating a balanced playing field.
Both
of these story telling methods ultimately achieve the two goals most important
in upkeeping a color blind façade: it takes the blame off of the individual
committing the fundamental attribution error, and attributes a negative
situation to a personal attribute rather than taking into account a situation.
Racism is recreated in these tales every day, and while they are being told, of
course there will be racism “without racists.”http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/microaggressions-in-everyday-life/201010/racial-microaggressions-in-everyday-life
http://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/The_Fundamental_Attribution_Error
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