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 | | Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva ISBN-10: 9780742546868 ISBN-10: 0-7425-4686-1 ISBN-13: 9780742546868 ISBN-13: 978-0-7425-4686-8 Paperback 2006-08-04 Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description In this book, Bonilla-Silva explores with systematic interview data the nature and components of post-civil rights racial ideology. Specifically, he documents the existence of a new suave and apparently non-racial racial ideology he labels color-blind racism. He suggests this ideology, anchored on the decontextualized, ahistorical, and abstract extension of liberalism to racial matters, has become the organizational matrix whites use to explain and account for racial matters in America. | ||
Reviews | ||
Self fulfulling prophecy In the Acknowledgments section at the beginning, Mr. Bonilla-Silva quotes his mother as saying, "...that no matter what the 'gringos' said about me, I always had to remember that 'I was as good if not better than them.' He then writes, "Over twenty years later, I fully understand her enormous wisdom. In this country, racial 'others' of dark complexion are always viewed as incapable of doing much;" Finally, Mr. Bonilla-Silva says that "Frida Kahlo was so right about this country!" Frida Kahlo hated America so that's very nice of Mr. Bonilla-Silva to give that kind of a shout out to my culture. As a white man I see Mr. Bonilla-Silva's mother as using 'gringo' like the N-word and I don't much like being referred to as "them". To portray this as "enormous" wisdom is foolish on the face of it. To say that people of "dark complexion are ALWAYS treated as secondary actors" is purest nonsense and eminently racist. These things tell you everything you need to know about Mr. Bonilla-Silva and his 'enlightened' views on whites and things racial. Like his philosophical brother Tim Wise, Mr. Bonilla-Silva projects his own racism, insecurities and obsession with race onto millions of people he doesn't know, namely white people, who he assigns philosophies and characteristics based on the lightness of their skin. In that Acknowledgment to this book, Mr. Bonilla-Silva indicates that he probably grew up expecting to see such things, sees them and then sets out to "prove" his thesis through the most childish manipulation of empty ideas. What does all this personal chaff have to do with millions of white Americans? The answer is: nothing. This book is all but corrupt from an academic and moral point of view and extremely hypocritical. If measuring all things through skin color is a language of racism then Mr. Bonilla-Silva is most eloquent. If ignoring the idea of measuring all things through a lens of race is ignorant then color me stupid. Mr. Bonilla-Silva's thesis that all people and cultures are equal but for opportunity is naive. Mr. Bonilla-Silva and Tim Wise seem to think that white people can't exist without oppressing someone and are in fact, the stupid ones in the world while any person who lacks privilege is an Einstein in the making. Perhaps they both would do well to think about where privilege stems from in the first place and how corrupt and successful value systems come into play; here's a clue: privilege didn't put spacecraft on Mars. The idea of a generational hangover on the part of black Americans because of slavery and Jim Crow is played out; one need only look at how European Jews made a country against tremendous odds only 3 years after coming out of murderous concentration camps against a background of hundreds of years of bigotry to see how played out. Mr. Bonilla-Silva is making an argument he can't afford to win since what he says in going on in fact is not. This is the danger of political correctness because it's childish tenets blind us to any solution we don't like. Under Mr. Bonilla-Silva's hypothesis, Jim Crow and white baseball leagues will fade farther into the past while the problems of black Americans will not and who will be left to blame? I'll tell you who: enablers like Jim Cone, Jeremiah Wright, Roland Martin, Tim Wise, Nikki Giovanni, Cornell West, Mr. Bonilla-Silva and on and on and on. It's not lack of privilege that hurts this book so much but merely empty headed ideas based on the supposition that his own mother's racism represents "emormous wisdom". | ||
Great Read Great read. Racism in the "post racial" age is colorblind. Its "racism without racists" and it operates in 4 frames: (1) Abstract Liberalism - says that you cannot give preferential treatment to certain groups to promote racial equality, as equal opportunity is there for all to access. (2) Naturalization - says that people self select... people will naturally "gravitate towards like." (3) Cultural Racism - explains the standing of minorities in society as being the result of cultural proclivities. (4) Minimization of Racism - race is simply no longer a factor. That's ancient history. People of color are hypersensitive. I wish I could have read this with my students, but it would have may be a bit heavy for undergrads. There are easier introductory reads on the topic, but this one is quite thorough. | ||
In Geat Condition The book is in great condition as if I went in the store and bought it myself. The delivery was also prompt. I was very pleased with the service. | ||
Worthless This book is pure garbage. The author wants to turn "racism" into a shaming word which can only be used against his political opponents. I cannot think of a better example of contemporary pseudoscholarship. | ||
An Amazing and Fresh Perspective 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." | ||