Racism Without Racists: The Formidable Wall of Color-blind Racism in American Society (original) (raw)
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As Americans celebrated the much anticipated inauguration of the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial in Washington D.C. a few months ago, one could not help but raise questions about the state of race relations in the United States. How much did race matter 45 years after this great civil rights leader gave his most famous speech in the capital? Many commentators wondered if the election of Barack Obama and the overall evolution of the country indicated that the United States might be entering a new era in which race inequalities had been reduced to the point that they might no longer be such a spurious issue (Taeku Lee 2001). In other words, the election of first non-white president and the inauguration of the statue of the first African-American on the National Mall could be the symbols of a new era of post-racialism in America. It cannot be denied that a sentiment of post-racial achievement spread throughout the United States during the 2008 presidential election and lasted until the inauguration. For many Americans, casting their ballots for this atypical candidate was proof that the United States had moved beyond race and overcome its racist past. Obama's message of hope meant the hope of a less racialized future. Such promise added a historical dimension to every ballot. However intoxicating this feeling was, it was short lived. Some time after the inauguration, political behaviors went back to normal, culminating in the 2010 mid-term elections that were as violent and as racially loaded as ever 1. Racial politics did not change overnight. In that regard Obama's election was an exception, an anomaly. America voted for a very special candidate under a very particular set of circumstances. We may not see the stars aligned in this way for a long time as we will attempt to show in this article. We believe that, in spite of Obama's historical election, in the United States race is, to use Bob Blauner's expression (2001), "still the big news". Every socioeconomic indicator, every demographic study, every political study shows that wealth, poverty, education, The post-racial illusion: racial politics and inequality in the age of Obama Revue de recherche en civilisation américaine, 3 | 2012
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Race relations in the United States have had a long history, but one that is markedb y significantd iscontinuitieso ver time. The period of slavery was followed by the brief but radically different window of Reconstruction. The Jim Crow system that developed over the following century legalized racial segregationa nd discriminatione, speciallyb ut not exclusively in the South. The civil rights revolution effectively ended that twocaste system of race relations, replacing it with a universal system of formal legal equality. Nevertheless, considerable racial inequality remains in manya reaso f the society, sucha s in income,w ealth,e ducationaal ttainment, health, crime, and so forth. The demise of Jim Crow was accompanied by a sharp decline in the prevalenceo f its supportingb elief system. This has sometimesb een described as "old-fashionedr acism," incorporatingb oth a biologically basedt heoryo f Africanr aciali nferioritya nds upportf or racials egregation and formalr acial discrimination(M cConahay1 986). Old-fashionedr acism has now largely been replaced by general support for the abstract principle of racial equality (Schuman, Steeh, and Bobo 1985; Sears and Kinder 1971). However, there is much evidence that whites do not fully often stronglyo pposedp olicles implementingt hatg eneralp rinciple,s uch as busingo r affirmativea ction,l eadingt o whatS chuman,S teeh,a ndB obo (1985) have called the "principle-implementatiogna p." Similarly,b lack politicalc andidatess till seem to have unusuald ifficultyi n attractingw hite supportd, espites ome greaters uccess in recenty ears.T his seeminglyp aradoxicalc ombination-widespreada cceptanceo f the idea of raciale quality mixed with continued resistance to change-is our starting point.