Description
Book SynopsisHow can colorblindness – the idea that race does not matter – be racist? This illuminating book introduces the paradox of colorblind racism: how dismissing or downplaying the realities of race and racism can perpetuate inequality and violence.
Drawing on a range of theoretical approaches and real-life examples, Meghan Burke reveals colorblind racism to be an insidious presence in many areas of institutional and everyday life in the United States. She explains what is meant by colorblind racism, uncovers its role in the history of racial discrimination, and explores its effects on how we talk about and treat race today. The book also engages with recent critiques of colorblind racism to show the limitations of this framework and how a deeper, more careful study of colorblindness is needed to understand the persistence of racism and how it may be challenged.
This accessible book will be an invaluable overview of a key phenomenon for students across the social sciences, and its far-reaching insights will appeal to all interested in the social life of race and racism.
Trade Review"Perfectly timed for our national post-post-racial moment, this book provides an exceptionally clear synopsis of how the ideology of colorblind racism supports racial inequality. Burke convincingly argues that we must adjust our understandings of racial ideologies as they – and the societies in which they work – adapt and change. With Colorblind Racism, Burke presents us with an updated toolkit to understand and effectively confront racism today."
—Kathleen Odell Korgen, William Paterson University
"Burke's book takes us on a tour of the origins of colorblind racism, its most distinctive components and contributions, and the new research and thinking it is producing. If you study racism in this supposed 'post-racial' era, you will probably want and need to get this book."
—Douglas Hartmann, University of Minnesota
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction
Definition and Core Features
Early Studies of the “New” Racism
Bonilla-Silva’s “Racism Without Racists”
Methods of Study
The Rise and Fall of “Post-racial” Politics: Race and Contemporary Politics
The Urgency of New Frontiers
Chapter 2: Colorblindness in Historical Context
The Evolution of US Racism
Study of Racism in the Social Sciences
Colorblindness and Growing Racial Inequality
Chapter 3: Colorblindness in Divergent Contexts
Colorblindness in Institutions
Colorblindness in Law and Policy
Colorblindness in Culture
Taking Stock of What We Know
Chapter 4: Contested Colorblindness
Variations Around and Across the Color Line
Variations in Social Contexts
Backstage Racism, Racial Codes, and Overt Expressions
New Questions about the New Racism
Chapter 5: New Directions
Colorblind Variations, Identities, and Continuums
The White Elephant in the Room
Challenging Contemporary Racism
