Let's Talk About Race

I’ve heard my friends, co-workers, and even family members say it: “I’m not racist, but…” This never ill-intended but clearly damaging and loaded phrase has been said time and time again in different ways and different contexts. The speaker often means well and yet prejudices are only highlighted by an attempt to mask them. Often it’s followed closely by a depiction of some very racially charged anecdote or criticism of behavior that supposedly has nothing to do with race despite the emphasis placed on it by the speaker. This saying came up in class the other day when I mentioned the idea of color blind racism. According to urban dictionary, color blind racism is a less blatant form of racism that is even more powerful than racism in the past. In other words color blind racism is a manifestation of prejudices in more subtle ways than that of pre-civil rights law and policy and is ultimately more damaging. Ostensibly we live in a land of equal opportunity, and yet history clearly suggests otherwise. Simply looking at a United States presidential timeline can make clear one of our countries greatest biases. And yet theres seems to be a tendency to avoid talking about this bias all together. In addressing the topic of race it is not uncommon to hear an individual (most commonly from a rather privileged perspective) claim to “not see color”. In this clip, youtuber Franchesca brings up a valid point in the conversation surrounding racism and color blind racism - that in suggesting we don’t see race, or furthermore that racism no longer exists period, we fail to challenge historical racial oppression which continues to impact groups marginalized for the color of their skin and ultimately perpetuate it. This is often overlooked when people think they are trying to be accepting and saying the right things. However this mindset is incredibly problematic - while discrimination and segregation have largely been dismembered in policy and law, racism is very much alive in ideology and beliefs, making further progress and even bigger challenge.

Our reading from Massey and Denton talked about this idea while specifically focusing on the forces upholding racial segregation. According to the text, racial segregation can be linked to three conclusions made by the authors:

“First, residential segregation continues unabated in the nation’s largest metropolitan black communities, and this spatial isolation cannot be attributed to class. Second, although whites now accept open housing in principle, they have not yet come to terms with its implications in practice. Whites still harbor strong antiblack sentiments and they are unwilling to tolerate more than a small percentage of blacks in their neighborhoods. Third, discrimination against blacks is widespread and continues at very high levels in urban housing markets.” (Massey and Denton 1993).

Looking at contemporary urban dynamics, Massey and Denton recognize the role discrimination and prejudice has had in sustaining segregation, and they also suggest more visually explicit forms of segregation in neighborhoods today means these ideas and beliefs are even more institutionalized than we often think. They assert that through realtor tactics, white prejudice, and discrimination in the housing markets “blacks remain the most spatially isolated population in U.S. history” (Massey and Denton 1993). In this regard, challenging the inequalities of racial oppression appears even more difficult than challenging the institutionalized forms of oppression from the past.