“New Racism.”

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

Read - "Nickel and Dimed: On (not) Getting by in America"

How is race socially constructed?

• A woman named Susie Phipps unsuccessfully sued to have her racial classification changed from black to white.

– Phipps had both black and white ancestry• A 1970 Louisiana law stated that

someone with 1/32 “Negro blood” is black

Race

• Creation of culture that reflects social distinctions and power.

• Bonilla-Silva investigates the current racial relationships and racial inequality in the US

Whiteness

• An identity• Embodied racial power• Visible uniform of the dominant racial group• White, Not Yet White, Not White but

“colored”

Post-Civil Rights Racism

• 1. increasingly covert nature of racial discourse and practices

• 2. avoidance of racial terminology and “reverse racism”

• 3. invisibility of most mechanisms to reproduce racial inequality

• 4. Safe minorities to signify the nonracialism of the polity (Colin Powell)

• 5. rearticulation of some racial practices characteristic of Jim Crow

Covert Acts

• Shown fewer apartments; higher rents• VP of trade assoc. kept in charge of “Minority

Affairs.”• Law partner as “black litigator.”• Restaurants: Stared at; seated in poor spot,

poor service; mistaken as employees• Not hired; Denied promotions; harassment by

police• Retail: surveillance, poor service, etc

Racism & Socio-Economic Status

• If poor, probably live in an ethnic neighborhood, therefore, they don’t experience a lot of racism.

• If middle class, then they experience much more racism.

• If upper class, they are the “model” minority and racism is more covert.

What about Affirmative Action?

• Affirmative Action is the practice of giving minorities and women preference in hiring and admission to college – especially in spheres that lack minorities and women.

Abstract Liberalism

• “I’m all for equal opportunity, that’s why I oppose Affirmative Action.”

• This ignores the effects of past and contemporary discrimination on the social, economic, and educational status of minorities.

• This, then, safeguards white privilege.

Naturalization

• Limited contact between Whites and minorities.

• People tend to group with others like themselves. . . “birds of a feather, flock together” as my mom used to say.

• It’s “natural”; everyone does it.• White neighborhoods followed by white

schools and churches followed by racial isolation.

• Population Change – Researchers predict that by 2050, whites will be a minority in the U.S.

Latin-Americanization of Whiteness

• White supremacy will become more salient. The “White” population will become the numerical minority, therefore, the US will develop a triracial system with “whites” at the top; an intermediary group of “honorary whites” and a nonwhite group or the “collective black” at the bottom.

“Whites”

• Whites• New whites (Russian, Albanian, etc)• Assimilated light-skinned Latinos• Some multiracials• Assimilated (urban) Native Americans• A few Asian-origin people

“Honorary Whites”

• Light-skinned Latinos• Japanese Americans• Korean Americans• Asian Indians• Chinese Americans• Middle Eastern Americans• Most multi-racials

Collective Black

• Filipinos• Vietnamese• Hmong• Laotians• Dark-skinned Latinos• Blacks• New West Indian and African immigrants• Reservation-bound Native Americans

21st Century

• Make visible what remains invisible (ie housing; banks, retail, jobs, etc)

• Prime Time, 20/20• Equality of results• New civil rights movement