Is the Emphasis on a Color-Blind Society an Answer to Racism?
Essay by dayshaex1 • December 3, 2013 • Essay • 1,047 Words (5 Pages) • 2,024 Views
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Is the emphasis on a color-blind society an answer to racism?
In society where we are supposed to be a nation that is one, we have many classifications. Racism is a word that strikes a nerve in many people, but it is prevalent. This "United" States we are supposed to live in still struggles today with racism, even though it is not as straight forward as in the day of slavery. The question is the emphasis on a color-blind society an answer to racism, rose great controversy. Ward Connerly claims it is a way to stop the segregation and make America a whole as it has been striving to be for the longest, with the elimination of classifications. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva believes color-blind racism is the new racial ideology and still brings about racial inequality. An ideology is a set of fixed beliefs that someone has, so racial ideology would be like a person fixed belief on a certain race. Even though Ward Connerly had a good point of view, I agree with Eduardo Bonilla-Silva. Regardless of a color blind society, there are still racial inequalities.
People act as if color of one's skin does not matter, when in all actuality it does. Many misconceptions and stereotypes are attached to people due to their skin complexion. Whites believe if they use color blind racism that means they are not racist. Refraining from using the word "black" and substituting it with something else, like "ethnicity" makes them feel they are not using racist comments. Whether whites lived life as being colored blind, their views on minorities will still be racist. As said in the reading blacks and minorities are given the short end of the stick. Also they are always held to extreme circumstance and stereotypes. This world we live in says the color of skin does not matter but contradicts itself; where all fact and proof show that people are held to certain classifications. "Blacks and dark skinned racial minorities lag well behind whites in virtually in every area of social life; they are about three times more likely to be poor than whites, earn about 40 percent less than whites, and have about a tenth of the net worth that whites have." (Bonilla-Silva pg.136)
In continuation, the racial inequality in the nation is very widespread; not as evident as slavery but still visible. Blacks and minorities deal with racial profiling and are confound to school who teach bare minimum. Why is it that we have less whites who have these problems? If the world is supposed to be equal, why is it that blacks and minorities receive these harsh treatments? "More importantly, how do whites explain the apparent contradictions between there professed color blindness and the United States color-coded inequality?" (Bonilla-Silva pg.137) If color blindness truly exist these characteristics listen as identification of a race would not play a major role as it does. A perfect example of characteristic being used to classify someone is the Trayvon Martin case. Just because he was a black male, in a hoodie, Mr. Zimmerman felt
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