Mickey Mouse ain't got no race. He represents all men.

Photo Credit Anthony Watson

     Bonilla-Silva argues in Racism Without Racists that modern American's live in a society filled with color-blind racism and racial inequality.  Color-blind racism is, according to Bonilla-Silva, white attitudes towards race that have moved away from the more straight up racism of pre-1970's to the post Civil Rights era racists attitudes that are still framed in a manner that supports white privilege.   Modern color-blind racism hinges on four frames abstract liberalism, naturalization, cultural racism and minimization.  This blog will focus on abstract liberalism as it is, according to Bonilla-Silva the foundation for modern color-blind racism.

     Abstract liberalism is the use of political liberalism's ideas in an abstract manner to explain race and often to oppose ideas of racial equality by stressing how things like affirmative action might, in an abstract sense, work against the ideas of social justice and equality.  This argument ignores that inequality is built into social institutions and affirmative action is used to work against those institutional blocks to equality.  White attitudes of color-blindness and arguing for the status quo of white privilege was portrayed in the 1970's satirical sitcom All In The Family.  Archie Bunker's  character is a white working class man trying to deal with how to act in a post-civil rights era.  Meanwhile, his daughter's attitudes closely reflect the findings of Bonilla-Silva regarding young white working class women having the most progressive views regarding affirmative action, marriage, and white privilege.  Archie let American society laugh at it's own awkwardness about racial attitudes and work out why those attitudes were at odds with reality.

      Apfelbaum found in his research into companies managing multicultural teams, that people who practice color-blindness or are reluctant to observe race are often thought of as being more prejudice than those who openly acknowledge race during social interactions.  In fact recognizing and acknowledging race has historically been the path to moving forward in American society.  According to Bonilla-Silva, when the joint efforts of racial minorities and white progressives work together, like Thaddeus Stevens or John Brown, racial progress can proceed forward.  White abstract liberal attitudes towards a meritocracy at work might change in the face of true discussion.  Rather than remain silent and pretend race doesn't exist, discussing how mostly white corporations fill mostly black cities as a problem that needs to be solved rather than assuming it is just a choice that minorities are making.

     The best way in my opinion to fight abstract liberalism is to talk about it, to think about it and to satirize it.  Carroll O'Connor led that charge in the 1970's and now people like Stephen Colbert are working to follow in his footsteps and keep society aware that presenting ideas like affirmative action is some kind of reverse discrimination ignores the built in racism that already exists.