Colorblindness and the New Racism - Essay Example

 Colorblindness and the New Racism In today’s society, people, have for lack of a better word, been ‘trained’, to believe that they should be colorblind, otherwise they are deemed guilty of racism. Nevertheless, it would be naïve to take the word ‘colorblind’ literally since it is human nature to notice physical characteristics, and skin color (whether we like to admit it or not) prompts a subconscious response to the observer. Skin color is unrelated with the intellectual capacity of the individual, but that again remains irrelevant to the superficial and materialistic inclinations that we as humans seem to possess. Michael Omi and Howard Winant confirm the above paragraph when in Gallagher’s Rethinking the Color Line: Readings in Race and Ethnicity, they argue that people’s first action when they meet someone for the first time is to look at their race to get a better understanding of who this person is and what his background is, which by itself I believe is also a form of racism. (Omi and Winant, see Gallagher) According to both Omi and Winant, American society has formed what they call “amateur biology”, which is a form of stereotyping certain characteristics that one applies to various races. According to both authors, the term “black” was born in the American psyche as an “ideology of exploitation” which made more sense, thus ignoring the various identities of the African slaves. (Omi and Winant, see Gallagher) My reason for including the above paragraph in the paper is simply to show that despite the “colorblind” lenses that people seem to have on (or want to believe they have on), the fact still remains that even the most ignorant person who believes that racial inequality is in the past, racial stereotyping will always live in people’s subconscious and even when trying to come off as open minded individuals, the arrogance and sometimes air of superiority can be found by reading between the lines. This is also known as ‘new racism’. In Gallagher’s Rethinking the Color Line: Readings in Race and Ethnicity, the research is focused in the social and racial inequalities that exist in today’s America. He highlights the role of the media, the state and the popular culture of today that have helped shape and broadcast ideas of race. (Gallagher) Gallagher writes, “the post-race, colorblind perspective allows whites to imagine that depictions of racial minorities working in high status jobs and consuming the same products, or at least appearing in commercials for products whites desire or consume, is the same as living in a society where color is no longer used to allocate resources or shape group outcomes.” (Gallagher) In the above paragraph, Gallagher implies, that colorblindness is a product of a combination of factors such as the media and in general our surroundings. The word ‘colorblind’ refers to (in the case of Gallagher) whites, and their inability to acknowledge reality concerning racial inequality. On the other hand, this inability, which Gallagher refers to, is also a connotation of racism. Unfortunately the vast majority of whites in America do not realize it, and eliminating any talk on racial issues doesn’t make them go away, or even does it mean that they do not exist. Gallagher states, “the perception among a majority of white Americans that the socioeconomic playing field is now level, along with whites’ belief that they have purged themselves of overt racist attitudes and behaviors, has made colorblindness the dominant lens through which whites understand contemporary race relations.” (Gallagher) In his book, Rethinking the Color Line: Readings in Race and Ethnicity, Gallagher uses a distinct argument when regarding the role of media and colorblindness. He refers to multi-million dollar companies such as IBM, Giorgio Armani, Walt Disney World and McDonald’s that have based their advertisements and marketing on a “balanced, multiracial cast of characters” (Gallagher) cooperating with each other in a world void of any inequalities and racial issues. What our author is implying here is that television, or more specifically Hollywood television, advertisements and any profit-oriented companies for that matter will always illustrate to their audience and consumers a world envious to anyone. In the 21st century, especially in countries like America, exposure to the media and the state is never ending resulting to a misleading picture of what the situation is really like. “Americans are constantly bombarded by depictions of race relations in the media which suggest that discriminatory racial barriers have been dismantled.” (Gallagher) Gallagher cites surveys and statistical data that advocate equality, no racial issues and overall a level playing field. What we understand from Gallagher’s writing is that the colorblind perspective takes away any mention or argument that white supremacy indeed does exist, and that through all these disregard existing social, political and economic inequality. (Gallagher) The notion of “laissez-fare racism” as Gallagher calls it, is also at work with whites blaming blacks for not having a strong work ethic or taking advantage of certain opportunities to help improve their quality of life. Gallagher provides us of such an example from a survey he took from what seems like a white teenager leaving in a suburban neighborhood. “ They say that I have white privileges. Uh, and if they say it’s like because where I live, I live in a big house or something like that, they’re wrong, because that’s not privilege. That’s something my parents worked for. And if they don’t live in a big fancy houses that’s something that their parents didn’t work for. And if they want to change that…I’ve got black people living across me. Uh, they’re no different than me. They’re different from the black down here because they worked for what they wanted. These people [blacks in a poor segregated part of the city], they don’t have to live here...” (Gallagher) The above statement implies more or less that it is not racial inequality and structural obstacles that are to blame for the statistical anomalies that speak of white supremacy but it is a matter of laziness and wrong choices. Not only is the above statement bursting with ignorance, but also racist remarks and acknowledgement of white supremacy. Many are those who believe that colorblindness is the end of racism, but as we have seen through multiple examples presented to us by Gallagher’s interviews and surveys it is just another form of racism; new racism. Leslie Carr said, “that colorblindness is not the opposite of racism; it is another form of racism”. (see Gallagher) The ideology behind colorblindness is actually quite simple and at some level understandable. Many people, as we have seen through Gallagher’s readings, use colorblindness as an attempt to downplay any racial divisions but that isn’t necessarily a good thing. Gallagher’s Rethinking the Color Line: Readings in Race and Ethnicity has shown us that when endorsing a colorblind ideology one does not acknowledge the issue of racism, meaning that one does not believe that racism exists or should exist. These individuals are ignorant of any racial disparities that exist in the world, and moreover believe that people who do actually confront reality are the ones guilty for sponsoring it. The result of this way of thinking is that they become less competent in matters concerning multi-cultural issues, and deem that racism occurs in remote incidents, thus believing people should just forget about it and move on. Having already talked about the ideology of colorblindness and that this is the new form of racism, I believe that it is important to understand more clearly what ‘new racism’ is. As I mentioned earlier ‘new racism’ is still racism, despite one might argue, the only difference is that it is more subtle and it comes in a more indirect form of expression. Ralph Ellison once asked, “what, by the way, is one to make of a white youngster who, with a transistor radio glued to his ear, screaming a Stevie Wonder tune, shouts racial epithets at black youngsters trying to swim at a public beach?”. (see Gallagher) What Ellison is suggesting with the above question is exactly the difference between ‘old’ and ‘new’ racism. ‘Old’ racism was once popular epithets of genetic inferiority and segregationism depending on what the color of the skin was, whereas now, as I mentioned earlier, it comes in a more subtle and condescending manner; colorblindness is the new subtle and condescending manner. To conclude this paper, we have learned from Gallagher’s Rethinking the Color Line: Readings in Race and Ethnicity that many whites within the United States have developed this ideology known as ‘colorblindness’, and even though at a first glance we presume that it is a step forward, it is my opinion that racism is still racism no matter how one decides to label it or sugarcoat it. Gallagher’s research on the matter is vital and of great importance so as to educate and help the youth understand the meaning of racism and more importantly, the history of what the word implies. Work Cited Gallagher, Charles A. Rethinking the Color Line: Readings in Race and Ethnicity. 4th ed. McGraw-Hill College, 2008. Print. Read More