Notes from Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in...

1

Notes from Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States

By Eduardo Bonilla-SilvaDuke University

Second Edition published 2006Bowman & Littlefield

2

1Enigma of Race in America Today

• Thesis: “Whites have developed powerful explanations—which have ultimately become justifications—for contemporary racial inequality that exculpate them from any responsibility for the status of people of color” (p. 2)

• Jim Crow racism said black’s social standing was biological and moral inferiority. Color-blind racism avoids those claims, is apparently nonracial.

3

• Color-blind racism “otherizes” softly: • “These people are human too.” • “God didn’t relegate them to the underclass--

they just don’t work hard enough”• “Interracial marriage is okay, but I’m

concerned for the children”

4

Chapter 2Frames of Color-Blind Racism

• Color-blind racism is an ideology• Ideologies are “meanings in the service of

power,” [ideas speak us as much as we speak ideas]

• They are symbolic expressions of the fact of dominance

• They maintain the status quo—’as is’ is good• “They comfort rulers and charm the ruled” like

a snake handler

5

• Ideologies are made up of frames for interpreting information

• Ideologies must misrepresent reality to gain their power; claims based on partial truths

• Example: “Blacks have made progress, so society if fair.” True. But hides fact that blacks remain behind in most every social arena: education, wages, wealth, health, etc.

• It minimizes racism for blacks but maximizes it for whites (“reverse racism”)

6

Four Central Framesof Color-blind Racism

• Abstract liberalism• Naturalization• Cultural diversion• Minimization

7

Abstract Liberalism

• History: Kant, Voltaire, Jefferson, and John Stewart Mill all proponents of “liberal humanism”—but also explicitly racist in views on blacks

• Liberalism CAN be liberating—when extended to its fullest logical conclusion: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all.

• But liberal humanism usually only meant Europeans were human and thus liberated

8

Defining of Liberalism

• Liberal ideology is at the core of modernism• Modernism used liberal humanism to

challenge the old feudal order philosophically (prove it, don’t just quote the Bible), economically (why should I serve a lord to get food?) , culturally (everyone has right to read), and politically (no more kings!)

9

Some Liberal Humanism Values

• Equality of opportunity (rags to riches)• Individualism (Little house on the praire)• Free choice (school vouchers)• Future oriented (that’s “so yesterday”)• Fairness as blindness (justice is blind)• Egalitarianism (all [men] are created equal)• Reward by merit (bootstraps)• Progress (amelioration: things improve)• Universalism (universal human rights)

10

• Constitution of the USA and other western democracies reflect these values

• Contained hidden exclusionary understanding at the core of these beliefs, reflecting the bourgeois capitalist biases of those in power. Example:

• “Freedom!” i.e., free trade (not controlled by a lord but also I am free to sell you if you are black); freedom of belief (but not for Jews or Catholics)

• Individual rights (one man one vote—but not a black man or even a white woman)

11

• This ideology of liberal values thus allowed for pernicious combinations:

• There is freedom of opportunity and rights for the white man to sell on the free marketplace an individual black woman—even if she is a mother and that means separating her from her children for life

• Marketplace = auction block • Freeman defined against un-free slaves

12

1. Abstract liberalism as a frame today

• Whites frame race-related issues (interracial friendships, interracial marriage, residential segregation, affirmative action, etc.) in this frame

• Makes whites appear “reasonable” and “moral”

• Affirmative action? no one should receive “preferential treatment.” Reason given: equal opportunity for all

13

• Ignores the fact that that minorities are--and continue to remain--severely underrepresented in most good jobs, schools, universities

• cbr stays blind to conditions of opportunity and to outcomes (I made it to home base; ignores I started an third base and minorities start on first base without cleats)

• Agrees to affirmative action in principle by staying at the abstract level of “equal opportunity”—but opposes every practical application of equal opportunity

14

“The Most qualified…”

• Meritocracy, or the belief that in America you earn or merit what you are rewarded for and that everyone has an equal opportunity at earning rewards

• Works if you don’t believe discrimination in the past has an affect on opportunities today and that discrimination is not present today

• Ignores concrete facts, such as 80 percent of all jobs are obtained through informal networks [see “positive psychology” and “Boss faking it” excerpt from Business week]

15

“Nothing should be forced upon people”

• The free market and free choice values of liberal democracy hold that governments should intervene in economic and social matters as little as possible

• Let the “invisible hand of the market” balances states of economic dis-equalibrium [oh, except for AIG and GM and farm owners and Exxon…they deserve extra help]

• Corollary: racial change should happen through a slow, evolutionary process in people’s hearts, not legislated

16

“Individual choice”

• “Individualism today has been recast as a justification for opposing policies to ameliorate racial inequality because they are ‘group based’ raced rather than ‘case by case’” (p. 36)

• Individual choice used to defend whites’ right to live and associate primarily with whites (segregation) or chose whites exclusively as mates

17

• Result: “If minority groups face group-based discrimination [but]whites have group-based advantages, demanding individual treatment for all can only benefit the advantaged group” (p. 37)

• [example: suburban and urban public schools are unequal—but opposing urban scholarship programs at universities]

• Fallacy of racial pluralism: assumption that all racial groups have the same power and access to resources in American polity.

• Whites have more power, access: thus their “individual choices” help reproduce a form of white supremacy in neighborhoods, schools, etc.

18

• Example: “ ‘People’ have the right to choose where and with whom they live.”

• True? For whites, yes, For blacks? Not in most white neighborhoods or white rentals.

• But it is ‘their choice’ (i.e. their fault) that they live segregated from whites

19

2.Naturalization as a frame

• Allows whites to explain away racial phenomena by suggesting they are natural occurrences

• Birds of a feather; God created . . ., preferences are natural parts of our personality we are born with

• “Segregation as well as racial preferences are produced through social processes and that is the delusion/illusion component of this frame” (p. 37).

20

• “Despite whites’ belief that residential and school segregation, friendship, and attraction are natural and raceless occurrences, social scientists have documented how racial considerations affect all these issues” (p. 39)

21

• Example: “Residential segregation is created by white buyers searching for white neighborhoods and aided by realtors, bankers, and sellers. As white neighborhoods develop, white schools follow—an outcome that further contributes to the process of racial isolation. Socialized in a white habitus, it is no wonder whites interpret their racialized choices for white significant others as ‘natural’” (p. 39)

• They are the “natural” consequences for a white socialization process

22

3.Cultural diversion as a frame

• During slavery and Jim Crow, blacks excluded on basis of presumed biological inferiority

• Color-blind racism relies on cultural inferiority arguments—diverts focus from social causes

• “Mexicans do not emphasis education”• “Blacks have too many babies”• Presumed cultural practices are seen as fixed

features: “Blacks are … [fill in cultural determinate here]

23

• CBR argues that minorities social condition is a product of their … lack of effort, immoral values, broken family units

• This frame blames the victims by reversing cause and effect

• Kim, a white university student: “If they worked hard, they could make it just as high as anyone else could” (p. 40).

• Blacks don’t really experience significant discrimination—blacks use it as an excuse to hide their “laziness”

24

• Kim argues cause of status of poor blacks: “I would have to say primarily family structure” and that poor people have different priorities.

• This ignores institutional effects of discrimination in the labor, housing, and educational markets

• Also ignores the well-documented effects of discrimination on middle-and upper-income blacks

• This is more than a slip, it is a pattern; most whites construe black status this way

25

4. Minimization as a frame

• Discrimination exists, CBR argues, BUT it is not a major impediment—minimizes amount and impact

• “Sure, it exists, but there are plenty of jobs out there.”

• Blacks are simply “hypersensitive” about race and “play the race card” to their advantage

• Discrimination is seen only as explicit, interpersonal prejudicial behavior

26

• Common argument: Class rather than race is the central obstacle for black mobility

• But many whites want it both ways:• 82.5% of whites disagree with the statement

that discrimination against blacks is no longer a problem

• But only 32.9% agreed that blacks are in the position they are today as a group because of present-day discrimination

27

Conclusion to chapter 2: Frames of Color-Blind Racism

• Like shrink-wrap on a dvd case, the frames of colorblind racism “form an impregnable yet elastic wall that barricades whites from racial reality in the USA”

• Whites bundle cbr frames together• Abstract liberalism (equal opportunity) +

minimization (discrimination is mostly gone today) = opposition to concrete liberalism (affirmative action is reverse discrimination)

28

Stopped here 2/12/2015

• So what happens if you give a classroom of white students the facts and statistics of real discrimination today?

• Most students will call up the cultural diversion frame to explain away the plight of blacks today

• “they don’t emphasize education enough, so they are falling behind”—i.e., it’s their own fault.

• Anything but racism explains whatever is raised that might poke colorblind racism’s ideological balloon

29

• Example of protecting the colorblind shrinkwrap:

• Are whites flocking together where they live, worship, work, school (even in mixed race public schools, tracking keeps whites together) racist?

• “This is not racism!”• Two defensive maneuvers to answer the

charge:

30

1. Employ abstract liberalism framing: either “I support integration, but I do not believe in forcing people to do anything they do not want to do” or: “People make their own individual choices”

31

2. Employ a naturalizing frame: “Whites like to live with whites and blacks like to live with blacks”—it’s natural

• Colorblind frames are pliable because they do not rely on absolutes.

• Jim Crow: ALL blacks are … • CBR: Not all blacks are lazy, but…

32

• Almost every white in the study – Mentioned the exceptional: “My friend Tom isn’t

like that”– Agreed in principle with racially progressive

notions: “School integration is great so we can learn from each other”

– Loved Martin Luther King’s dream of colorblindness: content of character: “Race will disappear and we will all be just Americans”

33

Chapter 3Rhetorical Devices and Styles of CBR

• A new normative climate has changed the language used (in public) --not the crude race talk of Jim Crow

• a style is a way of verbally delivering the frames of ideologies

• Styles are the peculiar linguistic manners and rhetorical strategies of delivering the frames

• Another name for the delivery of cbr: race talk• [like print type, racetalk always comes in a

font/style]

34

• These devices or styles of race talk are slippery, usually subtle, and often contradictory (if examined closely)

• “I don’t know about interracial marriage, but . . .”• [the words after “but” show ‘I do know what I

think, despite the disclaimer at the front of the sentence]

• The knowing that happens even in denying one knows reflects the white gaze/epistemology

35

Bonilla-Silva answers critics here

• “Am I suggesting white respondents are ‘racists’ trying to cover up their real views through these stylistic devices? (p. 54)

• “First, readers need to be reminded that I see the problem of racism as a problem of power. Therefore, the intentions of individual actors are largely irrelevant to the explanation of social outcomes.”

36

• “Second, based on my structural definition of ‘racism,’ it should also be clear that I conceive racial analysis as ‘beyond good and evil.’

• The analysis of people’s accounts is not akin to an analysis of people’s character or morality.”

37

• “Lastly, ideologies, like grammar, are learned socially and, therefore, the rules of how to speak properly come ‘naturally’ to people socialized in particular societies.”

• “Thus, whites construct their accounts with frames, style, and stories available in colorblind America in a mostly unconscious fashion.”

38

The Styles/Devices

1. Indirectness 2. Semantic moves 3. Projections4. Diminutives

39

Device/Style 1: Indirectness

• Post-Civil Rights norms forbid direct epithets (such as ‘nigger’) or Jim Crow terms (Negroes and colored)

• But many whites use socially sanctioned, indirect ways to talk about minorities even in public

• In private, however, many of the old epithets and terms are used

40

• Eric, a university student, heard this joke:• “It was, what do you call a black man, a black

man in a, in a coat and a tie? And it was, the defendant or something. Yeah, it was the defendant. And it was a couple of weeks ago or something that I heard that.”

• This indirectness distances himself from the joke, but the joke is as effective as directly calling blacks niggers

41

Device/Style 2: Semantic Moves

• (a) “I am not prejudice, but . . .” and “Some of my best friends are black”

• Act as discursive buffers before or after someone states something that is or could be interpreted as racist

• Question asked: Have you ever dated a racial minority? Jill (30s) answers with: “No, but I think one of my best friends is black.” But when asked to describe the “friend,” answers with [next slide]

42

• “Yeah we worked together at Automotive Company and what happened is this man was very bright. He graduated first in his class in economics from Indiana University and he got a fellowship through Automotive Company, which probably helped because he was black. And I also know he got into Harvard because he had terrible GMAT scores, but he did get in. He didn’t have terrible, he had in the high fives. [continued on next slide]

43

• “He did get in and graduated from Harvard and now he’s an investment banker. But you know what? He is a nice guy. What he lacks in intellect he makes up for in … he works so hard and he’s always trying to improve himself. He should be there because he works harder than anybody I know.” (p. 58)

• No name is every given for this friend --who deserves to be at Harvard because he is a “nice guy.”

44

• (b) “I’m not black, so I don’t know.”• Does the phrase stop there? No. “But I DO

know that…”• Brian on discrimination against blacks today:• “I don’t know. I believe them. I don’t know, I’m

not a black person living so I don’t hang out with a lot of black people, so I don’t see it happen. But I do watch TV and we were watching the stupid talk shows—there’s [cont]

45

• “nothing else on—and there’s people out there. And just that and just hearing the news and stuff. I’m sure it’s less than it used to be, at least that’s what everybody keeps saying so … I think it’s less but I can’t say. But I can’t speak for like a black person who says they’re being harassed or being prejudice or discriminated against.” (p. 59)

46

• Anatomy of Brian’s statement:1. “I am not a black person” so I didn’t see

discrimination happening.2. Recognized it does still happen3. Carefully states his own view: “I’m sure it is

less than it used to be”• Ergo: He doesn’t know, but he does know.

47

• Liz when asked about discrimination:• “Um, just because I’m not black, I’m not

Hispanic, I don’t really, don’t understand. I don’t go through it I guess. But then again, I’ve seen like racism on, you know, towards whites, scholarships and as far as school goes, which, I mean, which bother me too. So I guess I can kind of understand.”

48

• Liz changes the topic to so-called reverse discrimination, which “bothers me too.”

• Thus equalizes the two purported cases• But when asked about whether she believe blacks

experience discrimination in jobs and promotions, answers by avoiding the issue:

• “Um, I just think that the best qualified should probably get the job and that, you know, like I wouldn’t see why someone black wouldn’t get a job over someone white who was more qualified or better suited for the job.” (p. 59)

49

• Liz then hints that blacks lie they make claims of discrimination, the interviewer asked: So when they say that [it] happens to them do you think they are lying or …?”

• Liz quickly makes a reversal to restore her image of neutrality:

• “I mean, I don’t think they are lying, but I wouldn’t, I mean, I guess in my little world, that everything is perfect.” (p. 60)

50

• Negotiating the seemingly contradictory views that ‘race does not matter’ but, at the same time, that ‘race matters’ a little bit for minorities and a lot for whites in the form of reverse discrimination is not an easy rhetorical task.

51

• (c) “Yes and no, but”• Respondents appear to look at all the sides of the

issue but then proceed to take a stand on the issue• Emily on special opportunities for minorities to be

admitted into universities:• Emily: “Unique opportunities, I don’t know? There

might be, I guess, some minorities do get schools [that] aren’t as well funded as others. So, I would have to say yes and no. I think they

52

• “should get an opportunity to come, but I also don’t think they should allow other people to come. ‘Cause that’s sort of like a double-edged sword, maybe because you are discriminating against one group any way you do it and I don’t believe in that, and I don’t think you should discriminate against one group to give another a better chance. And I don’t believe that’s fair at all. But I also don’t believe that it’s fair that they have to [attend a ] school that can’t teach as well or don’t have the facilities to teach them like they should. I don’t know. I’m kind of wishy washy on that.”

53

• Kevin’s note: Why aren’t basketball scholarships or for United Brethren in Christ students or Christian school scholarships or male/female balancing efforts by admissions office or “legacy admissions” [George Bush to Yale] equally controversial?

• Mark on affirmative action:• “Yes and no. … I’ve heard most of the issues on this

and I honestly couldn’t give a definite answer.” (p. 61)

54

• But then stated: “I’m going to be going out for a job next year, and I’ll be honest, I’d be upset if I’m just as qualified as someone else, and individually, I’d be upset if a company takes, you know, like an African American over me just because he is an African American.”

• Mark’s philosophical yes-and-no on affirmative action seems to disappear when the policy is discussed in practical terms.

55

• (d) “Anything but race”• This strategy involves interjecting comments

such as “it’s not a prejudice thing” to dismiss the fact that race does affect an aspect of the respondent’s life.

• Allows whites to explain away racial “fractures” in their colorblind story.

56

• Sonny, when asked why she did not have minority friends while growing up, said she did have Italian friends now but said “race never came into play” and that “most of my friends were just normal kids.”

• About growing up: “I don’t know why. It kind of stuck together and I don’t know, it wasn’t that we, it wasn’t that we wouldn’t be like .. Allowing black people. It’s just that there was never, like, an opportunity. There’s no population like that around where we lived.” (p. 63)

57

• She seemed to realize that all-white networks violate her color-blind view of herself.

• Bonilla-Silva: “ My point is not to accuse whites who do not have minority friends of being ‘racist’. Instead, I want to show that whites explain the product of racialized life (segregated neighborhoods, schools, and friendship networks) as nonracial outcomes and rely on the available stylistic elements of colorblindness to produce such accounts.” (p. 63)

58

Device/style 3: Projection

• This rhetorical maneuver is also known as scapegoating

• “THEY are the racist ones”• Freud: we use projection to protect our psyches• Projection also forms a sense of corporate or

group identity: us versus them• Helps us escape responsibility as we affix blame

elsewhere

59

• College students in the study most often used this rhetorical device with so-called black self-segregation

• “Why do all the blacks sit together in the cafeteria then?” (if they want integration)

• Janet on interracial marriage question:

60

• “I would feel that in most situations they’re not really thinking of the, the child, I mean, they might not really think anything of it, but in reality I think most of the time when the child is growing up, he’s going to be picked on because he has parents from different races and it’s gonna ultimately affect the child and, and the end result is they’re only thinking of them—of their own happiness, not the happiness of, of the kid.” (p. 64)

61

• Janet projects selfishness onto those who intermarry

• Allows Janet to safely voice her otherwise racially problematic opposition to intermarriage

• Still, in the interview, she stated that if she ever became involved with someone of a different race, her family “would not like it at all! [laughs].”

62

• Kevin’s question: In an colorblind society, who can/should biracial teens date and marry? Should they avoid having children?

• Another common projection by college students: against affirmative action “just because of the color of their skin”

• Reason given? “Concern” for blacks “feeling inferior”

63

• Bonilla-Silva: “The rhetorical beauty of this projection is that it is couched as a ‘concern’ on how blacks feel about affirmative action. Of course, because the market is heavily tilted toward whites, if someone ought to feel ‘inferior’ about market decisions it should be whites, since they are the ones who receive preferential treatment ‘just because of the color of their skin.’” (p.65)

64

• Kevin’s note: Do you find the claim by Bonilla-Silva hard to believe?

• If you were black, would you “play the race card” lightly, knowing as you do that whites are quick to discount your claim (and turn your skin color into a card you can show or hide)?

• Question: How much would you be willing to pay to keep your skin white if for a medical reason it were turning black?

• Or, how much would I have to pay you before you would be willing to have your skin permanently blackened? [what about the tip of your pinky? Dyeing your hair?]

65

• W. E. B DuBois addresses the practice of white race projections in his 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk: He says that in a million different ways, whites who talk to him about race want and try to ask a question they are afraid to articulate: “How does it feel to be a problem?”

66

• Whites freely accuse minorities: “They self-segregate,” “They take advantage of the welfare system,” “They must feel terrible about affirmative action,” but seldom exhibit self-reflexivity

• Minorities are the problem, whites are not

67

• “Although white men make up only 43 percent of the total US workforce, they hold 97% of the top executive positions at the nation's 1,500 largest corporations.” The author also notes: “Contrary to popular belief, Affirmative Action does not set quotas. It simply requires organizations to investigate whether they have intentional or unintentional practices which limit minority employment and/or promotion; if such practices exist, they must establish a formal plan to resolve the problems, assess progress, and measure their success.” (The

Pros and Cons of Affirmative Action: Retrieved April 1, 2008 from http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/diversity/11063/2 )

68

Style/device 4: Diminutives

• Quick review: The three rhetorical devices or styles of racetalk we’ve looked at so far are indirectness (not “nigger” but “they lack motivation”), semantic moves (“I don’t know, but … [I do know and I feel strongly about it!]”), and projection (“They sit by themselves in the cafeteria”).

• Now we are on the last one: diminutives

69

• Diminutives are verbal and phrasal softeners [shall we call them verbal laxatives?]

• They are important devices for appearing to be nonracial and not aware of color

• Few whites say, “I am against affirmative action” or “I oppose interracial marriage.”

• Sanitized racetalk instead demurs: “I am just a bit concerned about the good of the children.”

70

• Andy, at a Midwestern university, on race: “Yeah, I just, I don’t know. I think everybody, everybody here just seems like really uptight about that kind of stuff, and, I mean, maybe it’s just because I never had to deal with that kind of stuff at home, but, you know, it seems like you have to watch everything you say because if you slip a little bit, and you never know, there’s a protest the next day.”

71

• When Andy is asked to explain what kinds of “little slips” he was referring to, he said:

• “Like, I mean, if you hear a professor say something like a racial slur, or something just like a little bit, you know, a little bit outta hand, you know. I mean. I would just see it as like, you know, it’s just little things like that.”

• Thus, Andy uses diminutives to state that people are hypersensitive because they protest when a professor does “little things” like making “racial slurs” in class.

72

Rhetorical Incoherence in CBR

• Almost all college students in interviews became incoherent when discussing personal relationships with African Americans

• These show up in otherwise intelligent, coherent answers when the topic turns to certain racial issues: grammatical mistakes, lengthy pauses, repetition, etc.

• Ray, a college student, was very articulate until asked if he was involved with minorities in college:

73

• “Um, so to answer that question, no. But I would not, I mean, I would not ever preclude a black woman from being my girlfriend on the basis that she was black. You know, I mean, you know what I mean? If you’re looking about it from ,you know, the standpoint of just attraction, I mean, I think that, you know, I think you know, I think you know, all women are, I mean, all women have a sort of different type of beauty, if you will. And I

74

• “think that, you know, for black women, it’s somewhat different than white women. But I don’t think it’s, you know, I mean, it’s, it’s , it’s nothing that would ever stop me from like, I mean, I don’t know, I mean, I don’t if that’s , I mean, that’s just sort of been my impression. I mean, it’s not like I would ever say, ‘No, I’ll never have a black girlfriend,’ but it just seems to me like I’m not attracted to black women as I am to white women, for whatever reason. It’s not about prejudice, it’s just sort of like, you know, whatever. Just sort of the way, way like I see white women as compared to black women, you know?” (p. 68)

75

• One reason whites get out of rhythm when discussing self-segregation is the realization that whatever they say about minorities can be said about them.

• Thus, as they explain their opinions on this issue, they make sure to provide nonracial explanations.

• Ann’s response to whether blacks self segregation provides an example:

76

• “Um, no, I don’t think they segregate themselves, they just probably just, I guess probably they’re, I don’t know. Let’s see, let’s try to—Like we were trying—like mutual friends, I suppose, may be and probably maybe it’s just your peers that you know, or maybe that they, they have more, more like activities, or classes and clubs, I don’t really know, but I don’t think it’s necessarily conscious, I don’t—I wouldn’t say that I would feel uncomfortable going and talking to a whole group.” (p. 69)

77

Conclusion to chapter 3 on Styles and Rhetorical Devices of CBR

• These styles and devices of colorblind racetalk serve the functional purpose of repairing tears to our society’s carefully woven colorblind fabric.

• As with the frames of CBR (abstract liberalism, naturalization, minimization, cultural diversions), these styles (semantic moves, diminutions, indirectness, and projections) can be mixed and matched

78

• Example: “I am a little bit upset with blacks [diminutive], because they cry racism for everything, even though they are the ones who are racist [projection], and I’m not being racial about this, it’s just that I don’t know” [semantic moves to soften the accusations].

• The incoherence in these answers reflects the peril in talking about race in a world that insists race does not matter (colorblindness).

79

• College students were much more fluent than older working adults in using the language of colorblind racism, and so appear less racist than working adults

80

• “It may be that as whites enter the labor market they feel entitled to vent their resentment in a relatively straightforward manner. No need to sweeten the pill when you feel morally entitle to a job or promotion over all blacks since you believe they are ‘not qualified,’ when you believe the taxes you pay are being largely wasted on ‘welfare dependent blacks,’ when you are convinced that blacks use discrimination as an excuse to cover up for their own inadequacies” (p. 71)

81

Chapter 4: CBR Racial Stories

• Storytelling is central to communication.• We literally narrate status (“When we were at

the Gold Gulf Club…”), biases (“This guy, who wasn’t even a member and drives a Ford Escort…”), and beliefs (“…had the audacity of asking me out.”) about the social order

82

• Stories also reinforce our arguments, showing others we are right

• But, we tell stories as if there were only one way of telling them—the “of course” way of understanding them

83

• Two main types of race stories:– 1. Storylines: characters are underdeveloped and

usually social types (the “black man” in “My best friend lost a job to a black man,” or welfare queen, etc.).

– Storylines are ideological when the teller and listener share a representational world that makes these stories feel factual (no one questions them)

84

– 2. Testimonies, in contrast to story lines, are accounts in which the teller makes herself or himself a central participant in the story or is very close to the character in the story

– Seemingly more detailed and personal than storylines, yet many testimonies whites tell still serve rhetorical racialized functions (p. 76)

– Examples: saving face, signifying nonracialism, bolstering their arguments on a racial issue

85

Major Storylines of CBR

• “The past is the past”• Fits easily into the minimization frame• Argues that we must put the past behind us

and any kind of reparations or affirmative action do the opposite by “fanning the flames” of racism

86

• John on reparations for blacks:• “Not a nickel, not a nickel! I think that’s ridiculous. I

think that’s a great way to go for the black vote. But I think that’s a ridiculous assumption because those that say we should pay them because they were slaves back in the past and yet, how often do you hear about the people who were whites that were slaves and ah, the whites that were ah?, Boy, we should get reparations, the Irish should get reparations from the English…” (p. 79).

87

• In the interview, whites often interpreted the past as slavery, even when asked about “history of oppression” or even specified Jim Crow.

• Jim Crow died out only slowly in the 1960s and 1970s, the reference to the remote distorts the fact of how recent overt forms of racial oppression are

• Most whites are still connected to parents and grandparents who participated in Jim Crow

88

• The past is past storyline also ignores the effects of historic discrimination in limiting blacks’ capacity to accumulate wealth at the same rate as whites

• blacks were sedimented” in the bottom layer economically and it would take generations to catch up with whites statistically even if all discrimination ended today

89

• Last, holding that discrimination is a thing of the past helps whites reinforce their staunch opposition to all race-based compensatory programs

• This storyline, then, is used “to deny the enduring effects of historic discrimination as well as to deny the significance of contemporary discrimination” (p. 79)

• But if one truly accounts for (isn’t blind to) past and present discrimination and its cumulative effects, the “anchor holding minorities in place weighs a ton and cannot be easily dismissed.”

90

• “I didn’t own any slaves.”• Says present generations are not responsible for the

ills of slavery.• Sara on government intervention for blacks:• “Hmm [long exhalation], maybe, just—Well, I don’t

know ‘cause it seems like people are always wondering if, you know, do we, like do we as white people own people as black something their ancestors were, you know treated so badly… [cont. next slide]

91

• “…But then, I mean, it wasn’t really us that did that, so I don’t know. I mean, I think that the race or that culture should, you know, be paid back for something in some way. But I don’t think that … I don’t know [laughs].”

• It is a fact that most whites historically did not own slaves or came after slavery was abolished

92

• But this story line ignores the fact that pro-white policies in jobs, housing, elections, and access to social space have a multiplier effect that is positive for whites and those deemed white

• That is why Irish, Italians, and Jews struggled hard to become “white”

• They wanted to receive the many and varied “wages of whiteness” (social, economic, etc.)

93

• Thus, the “wasn’t me” approach of this story line does not fit the reality of how racial privilege operated and still operates in America.

• All whites received and receive the unearned privileges of whiteness by being “white”

• All whites benefit from the various “incarnations of white supremacy in the USA” (p. 82)

94

• If the Irish made it, how come the blacks haven’t?”

• Says the status of blacks in America today is their own fault

• Henrietta: [5-second pause] “As a person who was once reversed discriminated against, I would have to say no. Because the government doe not need programs if they, if people would be motivated to bring themselves [cont’ next slide]

95

• “out of the poverty level. When we talk about certain programs, when the Irish cam over, when the Italians, the polish, and the East European Jews, they all were immigrants who lived in terrible conditions, too. But they had one thing in common: they all knew that education was the way out of that poverty. And they did it. I’m not saying the blacks were brought over here maybe not willingly, but if they realize education’s the key, that’s it. And that’s based on individuality” (p. 82).

96

• These story lines equate the experiences of immigrant groups with that of involuntary “immigrants” (enslaved Africans).

• Stephen Steinberg in The Ethnic Myth notes: • Irish, etc., could get a foothold on certain

economic niches or access education or small amounts of capital

• These small advantages allowed for social mobility

97

• “In contrast, racial minorities were for the most part relegated to the preindustrial sectors of the national economy and untilthe flow of immigration was cut off by the First World War, were denied access to the industrial jobs that lured tens of millions of [white ethnic] immigrants. All groups started at the bottom, but as Blauner points out, ‘the bottom’ has by no means been the same for all groups” (as cited in Bonilla-Silva, p. 83).

98

• [Great Northern Migration happens just as supply of European immigrants shuts off for WWI—okay, let the blacks do the factory jobs]

• [See my grandmother’s grandfather Wilhelm Bender notes for a white immigrant 1830 comparison]

99

• “I did not get a job (or promotion)” or “wasn’t admitted to a college” “because of a minority.”

• This last story line allows whites to never consider the possibility that they are not qualified for a job, promotion, or college.

• Note: number of cases actually filed before Equal Employment Opportunity board is relatively small and the vast major are dismissed as lacking any foundation.

100

• Most version of these story lines have limited data and rely on sketchy information

• They lack specific details (names, dates, etc.)• The story line’s sense of veracity is not based

on facts but on commonly held beliefs (a common symbolic world)

• Thus, precise information is not needed (white listener accepts white teller’s assumptions)

101

• Bob: “I had a friend, he wasn’t—I don’t like him that much, I think it’s my brother’s friend, a good friend of my brother’s who didn’t get into law school here and he knows for a fact that other students less qualified than him did. And that really, and he was considering a lawsuit against the school. But for some reason, he didn’t. [cont. on next slide]

102

• “He had better grades, better LSAT, better everything, and he—other people got in up above him, I don’t care who it is, if it’s Eskimo, or Australian, or what it is, you should have the best person there” (p. 84)

• Bonilla-Silva: “Bob ‘had a friend’ (who was not his friend, but his brother’s friend and whom he did not ‘like that much’) who [cont.]

103

• Claimed to know ‘for a fact’ (facts he never documents) that minority students who were less qualified than his brother were admitted to SU Law School” (p. 84)

104

Testimonies and CBR

• Testimonies, while inserting the “I” into it, serve similar functions to story lines

• They can include not only negative but positive interactions

• The positive stories often serve the rhetorical function of creating a positive self-presentation of the white telling it

105

• Mary on whether blacks self-segregate: “My floor actually, the year I had a black roommate, happened to be predominantly African American and so those became some of my best friends, the people I was around. And we would actually sit around and talk about stereotypes and prejudices and I leaned so much just about the hair texture [cont.]

106

• “you know? What it means for a black person to get a perm versus me, you know. I learned a lot. And it really, I think, for me, broke down a lot of barriers and ended a lot of stereotypes I may still had. Because like I said, I mean, those really became some of my best friends. And even still we don’t really keep in touch, but if I see any of ‘em on campus, still, you know, we always talk with each other and everything.” (p. 90)

107

• Mary uses the term “those” people twice• Twice notes they became “some of my best

friends”• These best friends remain nameless• Quickly lost touch with her “best friends”

(unless she happens to see them on campus)

108

• One type of cbr testimony: the confessional• “My father is kind of racist…”• Resembles confessionals in churches because the

speaker inserts testimonial as if expecting absolution from the listeners from possibly being regarded as racist.

• They follow a trinity formula: confession, example, self-absolution

• Usually cite the influence of woman (like a Mother Mary) in the attempt for absolution

109

• Emily, to question if her family talked about race growing up:

• “Um, I don’t know if it necessarily was a conversation, but my mom, I mean, she never was racist against people, you know. She always looked at them as people and stuff and I think my sister and I get a lot of that from her. And my dad is racist, but I didn’t [cont.]

110

• “live with him growing up. My parents were divorced, but she would talk about, you know, that it’s not good. And I remember one time, actually, I was a little girl, and I had my best friend was black, and I once said something that was—I don’t know if it was racist, it just wasn’t a very nice remark, I don’t think. And my mom sat me down and said, ‘How do you think she would feel if she heard you say that?’ you know. So she really she would call attention to things so we would pay attention to what was going on.” (p. 93)

111

• Confession: “my dad is racist”• Example: how her mother corrected her racist

comment about her friend• Self-absolution: “my sister and I get a lot of

that from her”• The rhetorical function? Proving she takes

from her mother’s rather than from her father’s side

112

• Mike on whether his family talked about racial issues at home:

• “Yeah, we do. I mean, my dad came from a pretty racist background, I mean, not, you know, like—well, actually, his grandfather, I think, was in the Ku Klux Klan, um, until he got married. And my great grandmother, who I knew—she died, but I knew her—was completely the opposite. And basically [cont]

113

• “when they got married, she said ‘no way.’ So that ended, but I mean, there was still a certain, you know, racism that pervaded. In his family they were pretty racist, so you’ll still hear, you know, racial slurs slip out every once in a while, but I think he makes a conscious effort not to, I mean, he certainly didn’t ever try to teach me things like that, you know. [cont]

114

• “For one thing, my dad was in the navy for a long time, so I grew up with my mom for the first five years or so, and then he worked and my mom stayed at home with me. So my dad’s influence was not nearly as much as my mom’s to begin with, and even when it was, I wouldn’t say that influenced me a lot, but tere were definitely, I mean, racist ideas in his family.” (p. 94)

115

• So are these stories racial or just what happened?

• “If these testimonies were just random stories, that people tell without any ideological content, one would not be able to fid a similar structure in them and would have difficulty assigning any rhetorical function. [cont]

116

• “Furthermore, the fact they were told at similar points in the interviews suggests they are … ‘defensive beliefs.’ In contrast, when white racial progressives mentioned having racist family members or growing up in racist neighborhoods, they did not us the trinity formula. … From an analytical perspective, then, these testimonies cannot be seen as … just plain stories.” (p. 95)

117

• Other testimonials included – Someone close to me married or dated a minority– I used to have very good black friends (by

resuscitating black acquaintances when from the past when needing to defend oneself as colorblind)

118

Conclusion to Chapter 4 on CBR Story lines and Testimonies

• These story lines are social products [how they are told and that they are told repeatedly using similar structures show that, like a language like English or Spanish, they are learned ways of speaking]

• The media play an important role n reinforcing them

• News reports on affirmative action seldom address the whiteness of the academy or the workplace and its implication

119

• Sensational reports on welfare cheats never address the reality of welfare, such that people on welfare live below the poverty line

• Stories of “bad” behavior by black and Latino youths are presented as “normal”

• But stories depicting “bad” behavior by white youths are seen as exceptional

• Gang-related activity in urban areas is naturalized, but gang-lie activity in the suburbs (drug selling and use, ‘school shootings’ which are mass murders, prostitution) are seen as exceptional and something needing our attention

120

• News reports thus tend to be presented as morality tales that reinforce the racial stories of CBR

• These reports are then recycled by the white audience as absolute truths

121

Bonilla-Silva ends by asking…

• Whites tend to interact mostly with whites• This fact, and its implications, has not been

adequately examined by social scientists• What are the sociological and social-psychological

consequences of whites living in primarily white environments?

• How can whites develop empathy and gain an understanding of blacks if so few of them develop meaningful interactions with them?

• These questions are addressed in chapter 5

122

Chapter 5Peeking Inside the (White) House of Color Blindness [white

segregation]

• Certain scholars have argued the cultural difference hypothesis—that segregation– Fostered lack of personal responsibility,

pathological behavior, despair and nihilism– Led to a unique style (“cool pose”), anti-

intellectual strategy of ‘oppositional identity’ to deal with educational barriers and to protect their self-esteem, etc.

123

• Many of these authors claim that the major characteristics of this subculture are little value for marriage, drug-related lifestyle, and a ‘language of segregation’

• Bonilla-Silva concedes part of this: “Despite serious limitations of this subcultural approach to the life-style of poor blacks, no one should doubt that, in general, [cont.]

124

• The social and spatial isolation of one group from others leads to differentiation of those groups as well as the development of group cohesion and identity in the segregated group” (p. 104)

• Here’s what this means [can we whites lower our defenses enough to hear it?] if we take this principle and apply it logically:

125

• “If this idea applies to racial minorities, it must apply to whites, too, and because whites experience even higher levels of social and spatial isolation than blacks, the ‘racial problems’ related to their ‘confinement in the prison built by racism’ must be as consequential as those produced by black and Latino ghettoization.” (p. 104)

• This isolation creates a “white habitus.”

126

• White habitus: “a racialized, uninterrupted socialization process that conditions and creates whites’ racial taste, perceptions, feelings, and emotions and their views on racial matters.” (p. 104)

• One consequence: promotes a sense of group belonging (a white culture of solidarity) and negative views about nonwhites

• Especially about blacks, since blacks are still the racial antithesis of whites in the racial spectrum

127

• Of 323 whites in the Detroit Area Study, only 1 was married to a black person

• Paradox between white commitment to the principle of interracialism and the white pattern of associations

128

• “It was a white neighborhood”• Of the 66 white college students interviewed, only

four grew up in racially mixed neighborhoods—but two of those did not associate with minorities

• Many whites inflate their reports on friendship• Researchers define friendship as: people who

exhibit a high degree of interaction, interdependence, and closeness (like “family”)

129

• 20 percent of whites will say they have black friends when asked directly

• But when the question is filtered by asking first whether or not the respondent has friends, then what their names are, and finally whether or not any of these friends are black, the proportion drops precipitously

130

• If whites had the demographic chance of interacting with blacks of similar status, would they do so?

• The study showed that even whites in integrated schools did not develop friendships with African Americans

• Why not? Tracking guarantees they have a mostly white experience in their schools

• Even in 40% or more minority schools, respondents described their classes/track as “mostly white”

131

• School integration occurs usually late developmentally (high school) after emotional attachments and preferences to whites has been formed and stereotypes learned

• How about college?• Precollege patterns of relationship persist:

limited and superficial interaction with blacks

132

• Three characteristics emerge in white’s self-reports of friendships with blacks:

1. They tend to otherize blacks (“these people,” “them,” “they”). Denotes whites social distance from blacks Example: Black ‘friends’ not identified by their

first names

133

2. Superficial contacts (sports, music, sidewalk chats) used as self-evident facts of friendship Missing: evidence of trust, interaction outside

formal settings (classrooms, assigned roommates, or job), and interdepence

3. These “friendships” with blacks almost always disappear after the reason for the formal interaction ends (taking a class, rooming, playing in band or same sports team, the job)

134

• “It’s just the way things are” (p. 111)• Whites do not interpret their

hypersegregation from blacks as a problem• Why? Not seen as a racial practice• Instead, they normalize this crucial aspect of

their lives by interpreting it as not an issue and as normal

135

• Q: Describe your feelings about your neighborhood and its racial makeup.

• Kim: “I liked it, it was fine to me.”• Brian: “When I was growing up, I didn’t think

about it much. I mean, it was fine for me, it doesn’t really bother me that much”

• Mary: “I really didn’t think about it.”• Bill: “I didn’t care which is pretty standard, I

think, for the kids. It’s taken for granted.”

136

• Other statements:• “It’s like the perfect American neighborhood”• “It was middle-class normal neighborhood”• “I loved it! Everybody was one big happy

family”• “They were good people. It was a good

neighborhood.”

137

• Why the lack of reflexivity and articulation in these worldviews?

• Dominant identities, Tatum says, tend to remain inarticulate precisely because the are seen as the ‘norm’ and therefore, “Whites can easily reach adulthood without thinking much about their racial group.”

138

• That is, whiteness is not perceived as a racial category, but other categories are

• A white neighborhood is a normal neighborhood, but a black neighborhood is ‘racially segregated.’

• Rita on her lack of black friends in her integrated high school: “I didn’t have any problem with them. It just, I never socialized with them. Yeah more like they actually never socialized with me.”

139

• Kara: “They just kind of clique with those people and … when you see a whole table of minorities, it’s harder to go up to people and talk to them.”

• Mickey: “Like dining facilities. Like it’s never, it’s never integrated. It’s always, they have their own place to eat.”

• So they do not see white tables or white cliquing

140

• Rick says he “grew up in a white neighborhood” and so “didn’t see race”

• Translation: he interprets “race” as something that only racial minorities have

• Susie: “I don’t think there were any racial children in my, you know, public schools.”

141

• “Recognizing white’s lack of realization that race matters in their lives, combined with their limited interracial socialization, helps decipher the apparent contradiction between their stated preference for a colorblind approach to life (which corresponds to their perception of how they live their own lives) and the white reality of their lives.” (p. 116)

142

• “If two people are in love, I don’t have any problem. But I do wonder about ..”

• Most interviewed endorsed a color blind approach to romantic relationships

• But most quickly qualified their support, leaving the principled approval to ring hollow

• Concern for children, family reactions, location, or “They can have all the fun they want, it doesn’t bother me.”

143

• Scott on interracial romance: “If you are comfortable with it, do it. You know, I mean, I’m looking for a Vietnamese—half-Vietnamese, half-Chinese right now. That’s my dream woman right there. I love Asian women.”

• Even this “acceptance” of interracial marriage is highly racialized (like such women are a food item on a buffet)

144

• The color blind answers (“I have no problem with it”) contained a part two, revealing deep reservations if not outright opposition to these unions

• Vast majority of whites express “personal preference” for whites as mates, which seems to violate their professed color blindness

• Even though whites lack real interaction with blacks (and thus biracial families), they presume to know that biracial children and families will have trouble

145

• “I suggest white’s answers to the interracial marriage question are prima facie evidence of one of the consequences of the white habitus. Whites’ answers signify they have serious difficulties in thinking about these relationships as normal. From a social-psychological perspective, this is not a mystery. [cont.]

146

• “How can whites fall in love with people whom they never see, whom they regard as ‘different,’ and with whom they hardly associate? Hence, what their answers to the interracial question betray is that whiteness as a lifestyle fosters whiteness as a choice for friends and partners. Their answers also reveal concerns for not sounding ‘racist’” so they can retain a color blind posture. (p. 123)

147

• The white habitus conditions their views, thinking patterns, and even sense of beauty and ugliness.

• An all-white habitus is unhealthy since it leads to postive self-views (“We are nice, normal people”) and negative other views (“Blacks are lazy”)

• The more distant the other group from the white “norm,” the more negative the view

148

• “Although most whites rely on color blindness (“race doesn’t matter”), a free-market logic on human relationships (“if two people are in love”), and liberal individualism (“I don’t think that anyone should have the right to tell anyone else whether or not they should marry”) to articulate their views on interracial marriage, [cont.]

149

• “few seem to support these relationships and, more significantly, to be in a position to ever engage in one or even to be neutral in case a close family member enters into one.” (p. 124)

• “White’s lack of true empathy for or interest n interracial marriage with blacks should not be a shock or a mystery to readers. People cannot lie or love people they don’t see or interact with.”

150

• “Thus, white’s extreme racial isolation from blacks does not provide fertile soil upon which primary interracial associations can flourish, regardless of blacks’ level of assimilation. Therefore, whites’ theoretical support for interracial associations with blacks is not likely to lead to significant increases in their personal associations with blacks.”

• [Kevin: Is this not an indictment of white Christians?]

151

• [Why, for example, isn’t our first kneejerk response—our Christ-conditioned instinct—to the question of mixed marriages to see the beauty and possibilities in them (e.g., how it would help to integrate the church racially and stand as a testimony to Galatians ‘breaking down the dividing was between Greeks and Jews, etc.) instead of “concerns” about “problems”?]

152

Chapter 9Exposing the Whiteness

of Color Blindness

• Fredrick Douglass (My Bondage and My Freedom)

• “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. … Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” (as cited in Bonilla-Silva, 207).

153

• “I thought racism died in the sixties? But you guys keep talking, and talking, and talking about racism. Please stop using racism as a crutch!”

• “Don’t you think the best way of dealing with America’s racial problems is by not talking about them? By constantly talking about racism you guys add wood to the racial fire, which is almost extinguished!”

154

• “Race is a myth, an invention, a socially constructed category. Therefore, we should not make it ‘real’ by using it in our analysis. People are people, not black, white, or Indian. White males are just people.” (p. 207)

155

• The myth at the heart of each of these statements: the idea that race has all but disappeared as a factor shaping the life chances of all Americans.

• This myth is the very foundation of color-blind racism. Remove it and the whole cbr house collapses

156

• The stories, ideas, and phrases are collective representations whites developed to explain and justify racial inequality today

• [We like to think we are original thinkers, but these common story lines and expressions belie our white collective consciousness (ideology)]

• They serve as symbolic expressions of white dominance

• [like HU faculty donning regalia at graduation to symbolically express faculty superiority over students]

157

• Facts alone will not eradicate the ideology, since the ideology interprets away the facts to contest and oppose them

• Evidence of black and Latino underperformance in standardized tests is a confirmation there is something wrong (maybe even genetically) with them

158

• This book instead decodes the components of color blindness and explains how they function

• All these codes say: “Race doesn’t matter much today, so let’s move on.”

• Affirmative action? Abstract liberalism will do: “Why should we use discrimination to combat discrimination? Two wrongs don’t make a right. We should judge people by the merits and let the best person get the job or promotion or be admitted into college”

159

• Present most whites with facts of residential and school segregation? Naturalization will do:

• “This is a natural thing. People prefer to be with people who are like them.”

• Or abstract-lib will do as a back up: “People have the right of choosing to live wherever they want to live. This is America, for God’s sake!”

160

• Discrimination? Minimization is just the thing:• Yeah, it does occur, but are “isolated incidents”

and “blacks often are hypersensitive and play the race card.”

• Confronted with the whiteness of their social networks? Use cultural diversion (“It has nothing to do with race, it’s just how things are”) or pull out the pistol of projection: “It’s blacks who don’t hang out with us. I’ve seen it in the cafeteria.”

161

• Too embarrassed by the whiteness to admit it? Insert a semantic move:

• “Well, that’s true, but some of my best friends are black”

• Or inserting personal stories save face too: “My best buddy in Vietnam was Samoan!”

162

• When whites regard race-related matters as nonracial, “natural,” or rooted in “people’s choices,” they deem almost all proposals to remedy racial inequality as necessarily illogical, undemocratic, and reverse racism. (p. 209)

163

• “Whites, despite their professed color blindness, live in white neighborhoods, associate primarily with whites, befriend mostly whites, and choose whites as their mates.” (p. 209)

164

What can be done?

• “We need to nurture a large cohort of antiracist whites to begin challenging color-blind nonsense from within” (p. 213)

• [All of us reading this are doing this! But are you letting the shrink rap tear?]

• “In racial matters as in therapy, the admission of denial is the preamble for the beginning of recovery.”

165

• Whites must become race traitors, [such as interrupting racial jokes—are you willing to commit yourself to doing even that? It’s tougher than it sounds. But then think of how tough it is to be the recipient of racism. What would Jesus have you do? Taking up your cross means more than wearing a gold one around your neck.]

166

• “Antiracist whites cannot just be ‘race traitors’ [at the interpersonal level, such as interrupting a joke]; they must engage in struggles to end the practices and the ideology that maintain white supremacy.”

• “Individual racial treason without a political praxis to eliminate the system that produces racial inequality amounts to racial showboating.” [fixing the symptom, not the cause]

167

Another way to combat racism

• Researchers and activists alike need to provide counter-ideological arguments to each of the frames of color-blind racism.

• “We need to counter white’s abstract liberalism with concrete liberal positions based on a realistic understanding of racial matters and a concern with achieving racial equality.” (p. 213) Example…

168

• “The racially illiberal effects of the do-nothing social policy advocated by whites must be exposed and challenged.” (p. 213)

169

• “We must hold up a mirror to whites to show whites the myriad facts of contemporary whiteness, such as whites living in white neighborhoods, sending their kids to white schools, associated primarily with whites, and having all their primary relationships with whites” (p. 213)

• Turn the analytic lenses on how this isolation affects whites’ views, emotions, and cognitions about themselves and minorities.

170

• Whiteness must be challenged where ever it exists: universities, schools, churches, corporations

• “If you are a white student in a historically white college, you must raise hell to change your college; you must organize to change the racial climate and demography of your college.” (p. 214)

171

• “If you work in corporate America, you must wage war against subtle and covert racism; you must challenge the practices that minorities into certain jobs and preserve high-paying ones for white males.”

• “If you are a parent who spends most of your time housebound, you need to begin a campaign for racial change in our family interactions and attitudes; you must engage with minorities, opt for a multiracial rather than a white church, and move from your white neighborhood into an integrated one.” (p. 214)

172

• Racial dialogues in themselves never change systems of domination and their accompanying ideologies.

• Racism workshops won’t do it• Organization and passion that form a

movement can

173

• “I know quite well most whites are not up to the challenge of working to develop a country without white supremacy. For example, few whites would engage in a social movement or in personal practices that would rock the foundation of the status quo and their everyday lives.” (p. 214)

• [we hold to a theology of niceness that is everything Jesus wasn’t]

174

• “The idea of moving from a ‘safe’ neighborhood into a ‘dangerous’ one, for instance, is anathema to most white Americans (‘Honey, do you want our kids to attend bad schools?’ ’Do you want us to lose our investment in this house?)” (p. 215)

• [Jesus: "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. “(Matt. 10:37)]

175

• [For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Eph. 6:12)]

• [Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. (Eph. 2:2)]

176

• [I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Rom. 12:1-2)]

177

• [Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others (Philippians 2:4)]

• [So he (Jesus) is our peace. In his body he has made Jewish and non-Jewish people one by breaking down the wall of hostility that kept them apart. (Eph. 2:14)]

178

• “I once was blind but now I see…”--slave trader Isaac Newton