Social studies power point presentation

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Chapter 3

THE FRAMES OF COLOR-BLIND RACISM

Ideologies are about "meaning in the service of power." 4 They are expres-

sions at the symbolic level of the fact of dominance. As such, the ideolo-

gies of the powerful are central in the production and reinforcement of

the status quo. They comfort rulers and charm the ruled much like an

Indian snake handler. Whereas rulers receive solace by believing they are

not involved in the terrible ordeal of creating and maintaining inequal-

ity, the ruled are charmed by the almost magic qualities of a hegemonic

ideology. 5

The central component of any dominant racial ideology is its frames or

set paths for interpreting information. These set paths operate as cul-de-sacs

because after people filter issues through them, they explain racial phe-

nomena following a predictable route. Although by definition dominant

frames must misrepresent the world (hide the fact of dominance), this

does not mean that they are totally without foundation. (For instance, it

is true that people of color in the United States are much better off today

than at any other time in history. However, it is also true — facts hidden

by color-blind racism — that because people of color still experience sys-

tematic discrimination and remain appreciably behind whites in many

important areas of life, their chances of catching up with whites are very

slim.) Dominant racial frames, therefore, provide the intellectual road

map used by rulers to navigate the always rocky road of domination and,

as I will show in chapter 6, derail the ruled from their track to freedom

and equality.

Analysis of the interviews with college students and DAS respondents

revealed that color-blind racism has four central frames and that these

frames are used by an overwhelming majority of the white respondents.

The four frames are abstract liberalism, naturalization, cultural racism, and

minimization of racism. Of the four frames, abstract liberalism is the most

important, as it constitutes the foundation of the new racial ideology. It is

also the hardest to understand (What is racial about opposing busing or

affirmative action, policies that clearly interfere with our American indi-

vidualism?). Thus, I dedicate more space in this chapter to its discussion

and to how it plays out in the color-blind drama.

In order to adequately understand the abstract liberalism frame, first

we need to know what is liberalism. According to John Gray, liberalism,

or "liberal humanism," is at the core of modernity; of the philosophical,

economic, cultural, and political challenge to the feudal order. Although

he acknowledges that liberalism has no "essence," he points out that it

has a "set of distinctive features," namely, individualism, universalism,

egalitarianism, and meliorism (the idea that people and institutions can

be improved). 6 All these components were endorsed and placed at the

The Central Frames of Color-Blind Racism

75

core of the constitutions of emerging nation-states by a new set of ac-

tors: the bourgeoisies of early modern capitalism. When the bourgeoisie

lauded freedom, they meant "free trade, free selling and buying"; when

they applauded "individualism," they had in mind "the bourgeois . . . the

middle-class owner of property"; "The ideas of religious liberty and free-

dom of conscience merely gave expression to the sway of free competition

within the domain of knowledge." 7

Hence, classical liberalism was the philosophy of a nascent class that as

an aspiring ruling class expressed its needs (political as well as economic)

as general societal goals. But the bourgeois goals were not extended to the

populace in their own midst until the twentieth century. 8 Moreover, the

liberal project was never inclusive of the countries that Spain, Portugal,

France, Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, and later on, Germany used as

outposts for raw materials and racialized workers (e.g., slaves). Although

contemporary commentators debate the merits of liberal humanism as it

pertains to current debates about race-based policies, muticulturalism,

and "equality of results," 9 many seem oblivious to the fact that "European

humanism (and liberalism) usually meant that only Europeans were human." 10

Philosophers such as Kant stated that the differences between blacks and

whites were "to be as great in regard to mental capacities as in colour."

Voltaire, the great French philosopher, said on the same subject that "only

a blind man is permitted to doubt that Whites, Blacks, and Albinoes . . .

are totally different races." Lastly, even the father of modern liberalism,

John Stuart Mill, author of On Liberty, justified nineteenth-century co-

lonialism and supported slavery in antiquity and in certain nineteenth-

century colonial situations. 11 To be clear, my intent here is not to vilify the

founders of liberalism, but to point out that modernity, liberalism, and

racial exclusion were all part of the same historical movement.

The liberal tradition informed the American Revolution, the U.S. Con-

stitution, and "the leading American liberal thinker of this period, Thomas

Jefferson." 12 And in the United States as in Europe, the exclusion of the

majority of white men and all white women from the rights of citizenship

and the classification of Native Americans and African Americans as sub-

persons accompanied the development of the new liberal nation-state. 13

Specifically, racially based policies such as slavery, the removal of Native

Americans from their lands and their banishment to reservations, the su-

perexploitation and degrading utilization of Mexicans and various Asian

groups as contract laborers, Jim Crow, and many other policies were part

of the United States' "liberal" history from 1776 until the 1960s.

Nevertheless, I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge that, in both

Europe and the United States, disenfranchised groups and progressive

politicians used the liberal rhetoric to advance social and legal reforms

(e.g., the civil rights movement, the National Organization of Women,

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Liberal parties in Europe). 14 Thus liberalism, when extended to its seem-

ingly logical conclusions ("Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for

all") and connected to social movements, can be progressive. My point,

however, is less about social-reform liberalism (although I contend many

reform organizations and many white reform-minded individuals 15 have

adopted color-blind racism) than about how central elements of liberal-

ism have been rearticulated in post-civil rights America to rationalize

racially unfair situations.

The frame of abstract liberalism involves using ideas associated

with political liberalism (e.g., "equal opportunity," the idea that force

should not be used to achieve social policy) and economic liberalism

(e.g., choice, individualism) in an abstract manner to explain racial

matters. By framing race-related issues in the language of liberalism,

whites can appear "reasonable" and even "moral," while opposing al-

most all practical approaches to deal with de facto racial inequality. For

instance, the principle of equal opportunity, central to the agenda of the

civil rights movement and whose extension to people of color was vehe-

mently opposed by most whites, is invoked by whites today to oppose

affirmative-action policies because they supposedly represent the "pref-

erential treatment" of certain groups. This claim necessitates ignoring the

fact that people of color are severely underrepresented in most good jobs,

schools, and universities and, hence, it is an abstract utilization of the

idea of "equal opportunity." Another example is regarding each person

as an "individual" with "choices" and using this liberal principle as a

justification for whites having the right of choosing to live in segregated

neighborhoods or sending their children to segregated schools. This claim

requires ignoring the multiple institutional and state-sponsored practices

behind segregation and being unconcerned about these practices' nega-

tive consequences for minorities.

Naturalization is a frame that allows whites to explain away racial

phenomena by suggesting they are natural occurrences. For example,

whites can claim "segregation" is natural because people from all back-

grounds "gravitate toward likeness." Or that their taste for whiteness in

friends and partners is just "the way things are." Although the above

statements can be interpreted as "racist" and as contradicting the color-

blind logic, they are actually used to reinforce the myth of nonracialism.

How? By suggesting these preferences are almost biologically driven and

typical of all groups in society, preferences for primary associations with

members of one's race are rationalized as nonracial because "they (racial

minorities) do it too."

Cultural racism is a frame that relies on culturally based arguments

such as "Mexicans do not put much emphasis on education" or "blacks

have too many babies" to explain the standing of minorities in society.

The Central Frames of Color-Blind Racism

77

This frame has been adequately discussed by many commentators and

does not require much discussion. 16 During slavery and Jim Crow a cen-

tral rationale for excluding racial minorities was their presumed biologi-

cal inferiority. Even as late as 1940, a white newspaper editor in Durham,

North Carolina, could confidently state that

a Negro is different from other people in that he's an unfortunate branch of

the human family who hasn't been able to make out of himself all he is ca-

pable of. He is not capable of being rushed because of the background of the

jungle. Part of his human nature can't be rushed; it gets him off his balance.

. . . You can't wipe away inbred character in one year or a hundred years. It

must be nursed along. We look upon him for his lack of culture, as being less

reliable, in business and unsafe socially. His passions are aroused easily. 17

Today only white supremacist organizations spout things such as this

in open forums. Yet, these biological views have been replaced by cultural

ones that, as I will show, are as effective in defending the racial status

quo. 18 For example, George McDermott, one of the white middle-class

residents interviewed by Katherine Newman in her Declining Fortunes,

stated,

I believe in morality: I believe in ethics: I believe in hard work: I believe in all

the old values. I don't believe in handouts. ... So that the whole welfare sys-

tem falls into that [category] .... The idea of fourteen-year-old kids getting

pregnant and then having five children by the time they're twenty is absurd!

It's ridiculous! And that's what's causing this country to go downhill.

And as Newman poignantly comments, "George does not see himself

as racist. Publicly he would subscribe to the principle everyone in this so-

ciety deserves a fair shake." 19 Color-blind racism is racism without racists!

Minimization of racism is a frame that suggests discrimination is

no longer a central factor affecting minorities' life chances ("It's bet-

ter now than in the past" or "There is discrimination, but there are

plenty of jobs out there"). This frame allows whites to accept facts such

as the racially motivated murder of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas, 20 the

brutal police attack on Rodney King, the Texaco case, 21 the 2005 lawsuit

by black workers alleging that Tyson Foods maintained a "Whites Only"

bathroom in one of their Alabama plants, the neglect and slow response

by government officials toward a mostly black population during Hur-

ricane Katrina, and many other cases and still accuse minorities of being

"hypersensitive," of using race as an "excuse," or of "playing the infa-

mous race card." More significantly, this frame also involves regarding

discrimination exclusively as all-out racist behavior, which, given the way

"new racism" practices operate in post-civil rights America (chapter 1),

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eliminates the bulk of racially motivated actions by individual whites and

institutions by fiat.

Before proceeding to illustrate how whites use these frames, I need to

clarify a few points about the data and how I present them. First, whites

used these frames in combination rather than in pure form. This is un-

derstandable, since informal expressions of ideology are a constructive

effort, a process of building arguments in situ. Therefore, the examples

of how whites use a particular frame may be mixed with other frames.

Second, the frames were verbalized by participants in various emotional

tones, ranging from sympathy to absolute disgust and outrage toward

minorities. This suggests whites with differing levels of sympathy toward

minorities resort to the same frames when constructing their accounts of

racial matters. I attempt to represent this range of emotion in the quotes.

Third, because the college student and DAS samples represent two dif-

ferent populations, I present quotes from the two studies separately in

the text. I do so to better identify differences in style or content among

the two populations. Fourth, the quotes in the chapter were selected to

embrace the variety of ways in which the frames are used by respondents.

This implies that many outrageously racist quotes were left out for the

sake of representing the variance in the samples. Fifth, the interviews

were transcribed to be as close to what the respondents uttered as pos-

sible. Thus the transcripts include nonlexical expressions (umm, ahh,

umhmm), pauses (indicated by ellipses when they are short and by a

number in seconds in parentheses representing the duration of the pause

when they are longer than five seconds), emphases (indicated by italics

or, for notations of the respondent's tone, by italic letters in brackets),

self-corrections (denoted by a short line, — ), and other important discur-

sive matters (laughs and changes in tone are indicated with italic letters

in brackets). Whenever I have added words, they appear in brackets; the

interviewers' interventions appear in brackets and in italic letters. How-

ever, to improve its readability, I edited the material lightly.

ABSTRACT LIBERALISM: UNMASKING REASONABLE RACISM 22

Because of the curious way in which liberalism's principles are used

in the post-civil rights era, other analysts label modern racial ideology

"laissez-fare racism" or "competitive racism" or argue that modern rac-

ism is essentially a combination of the "American Creed" with antiblack

resentment. 23 The importance of this frame is evident in that whites use it

on issues ranging from affirmative action and interracial friendship and

marriage to neighborhood and residential segregation. Because of the piv-

otal role played by this frame in organizing whites' racial views, I provide

numerous examples below.

The Central Frames of Color-Blind Racism

79

Rationalizing Racial Unfairness in the Name of Equal Opportunity

An archetype of how white students use the notion of equal opportunity

in an abstract manner to oppose racial fairness is Sue, a student at SU.

When asked if minority students should be provided unique opportu-

nities to be admitted into universities, Sue stated:

I don't think that they should be provided with unique opportunities. I think

that they should have the same opportunities as everyone else. You know,

it's up to them to meet the standards and whatever that's required for en-

trance into universities or whatever. I don't think that just because they're a

minority that they should, you know, not meet the requirements, you know.

Sue, like most whites, ignored the effects of past and contemporary

discrimination on the social, economic, and educational status of minori-

ties. Therefore, by supporting equal opportunity for everyone without

a concern for the savage inequalities between whites and blacks, Sue's

stance safeguards white privilege. Sue even used the notion of equal op-

portunity to avoid explaining why blacks tend to perform worse than

whites academically: "I don't know . . . um, like I said, I don't see it as a

group thing. I see it more as an individual [thing] and I don't know why

as a whole they don't do better. I mean, as I see it, they have the same op-

portunity and everything. They should be doing equal."

College students are not the only ones who use this abstract notion of

equal opportunity to justify their racial views. For example, Eric, a cor-

porate auditor in his forties, and a very affable man who seemed more

tolerant than most members of his generation (e.g., he had dated a black

woman for three years, recognized that discrimination happens "a lot"

and identified multiple examples, and even said that "the system is ... is

white"), erupted in anger when asked if reparations were due to blacks

for the injuries caused by slavery and Jim Crow: "Oh tell them to shut

up, OK! I had nothing to do with the whole situation. The opportunity

is there, there is no reparation involved and let's not dwell on it. I'm

very opinionated about that!" After suggesting that Jews and Japanese

are the ones who really deserve reparation, Eric added, "But something

that happened three God-damned generations ago, what do you want us

to do about it now? Give them opportunity, give them scholarships, but

reparations?"

Was Eric just a white with a "principled opposition" to government

intervention (see chapter 1 for analysts who make this claim)? This does

not seem to be the case since Eric, like most whites, made a distinction

between government spending on behalf of victims of child abuse, the

homeless, and battered women (whom whites deem as legitimate candi-

dates for assistance) and government spending on blacks (whom whites

deem as unworthy candidates for assistance). This finding was consistent

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with DAS survey results. For instance, whereas 64.3 percent of whites

agreed that "we should expand the services that benefit the poor," only

39.6 percent (as opposed to 84 percent of blacks) agreed with the proposi-

tion "The government should make every effort to improve the social and

economic position of blacks living in the United States." Furthermore,

whereas 75.2 percent of white respondents approved of increasing fed-

eral spending for the environment and 59.7 percent for social security,

only 31.7 percent approved such increases for programs to assist blacks.

And when the question dealt with government programs that were not

perceived as "racial" in any way, 24 the proportion of whites supporting

the program increased even more.

"The Most Qualified . . .":

A Meritocratic Way of Defending White Privilege

Another tenet of liberalism whites use to explain racial matters is the Jef-

fersonian idea of "the cream rises to the top," or meritocracy (reward by

merit). And whites seem unconcerned that the color of the "cream" that

usually "rises" is white. For example, Diane, a student at SU, expressed

her dissatisfaction about providing blacks unique opportunities to be

admitted into universities: "I don't think you should admit anyone. It's

gotta be, you've gotta be on the level to do it. If they were prepared be-

forehand to handle the college level to succeed in it, then there you go,

anyone can." Diane then added, "They've gotta have the motivation to

do well before you get there, I mean, I can't imagine being unprepared to

go [to college] like just barely getting by in high school and then coming

here to take the classes, you just can't go, 'OK, we want to put minorities

in here so put anyone in,' you know." Diane also used the notion of meri-

tocracy to explain her opposition to affirmative action.

That's so hard. I still believe in merit, you know, I still believe in equality,

you know. If you did have two people with the same qualifications, one's

minority and one's not, you know, I'd want to interview them and just

maybe a personality stands out that works with the job, I don't know. lust

find something other than race to base it on, you know? Let that not be a

factor if they qualify.

How could Diane maintain these views and remain "reasonable"?

Diane could say these things and seem reasonable because she believes

discrimination is not the reason why blacks are worse off than whites.

Instead, she relied on the cultural racism frame to explain blacks' status.

This view can be seen too in her response to a question on why blacks fare

worse academically than whites: "I don't know why. Mine was a personal

motivation so, you know, I don't know. I don't want to say they weren't

The Central Frames of Color-Blind Racism

81

personally motivated to get good grades, but that's what it was for me."

Diane expanded on this matter and said, "Maybe some of them don't

have parents to push them or . . . maybe the schools are not equal." She

also speculated, "Maybe, you know, they've got in their mind that they

can't succeed because they're a minority and they don't try, you know,

no one there to tell them 'You can do it, it doesn't matter who you are.'"

Whites from the Detroit metro area used the meritocratic frame as ex-

tensively as college students. For instance Jim, a thirty-year-old computer

software salesperson from a privileged background, explained in the fol-

lowing way his opposition to affirmative action:

I think it's unfair top to bottom on everybody and the whole process. It often,

you know, discrimination itself is a bad word, right? But you discriminate

every day. You wanna buy a beer at the store and there are six kinda beers

you can get, from Natural Light to Sam Adams, right? And you look at the

price and you look at the kind of beer, and you . . . it's a choice. And a lot

of that you have laid out in front of you, which one you get? Now, should

the government sponsor Sam Adams and make it cheaper than Natural

Light because it's brewed by someone in Boston? That doesn't make much

sense, right? Why would we want that or make Sam Adams eight times as

expensive because we want people to buy Natural Light? And it's the same

thing about getting into school or getting into some place. And universities

it's easy, and universities is a hot topic now, and I could bug you, you know,

Midwestern University I don't think has a lot of racism in the admissions

process. And I think Midwestern University would, would agree with that

pretty strongly. So why not just pick people that are going to do well at

Midwestern University, pick people by their merit? I think we should stop

the whole idea of choosing people based on their color. It's bad to choose

someone based on their color; why do we, why do we enforce it in an insti-

tutional process?

Since Jim posited hiring decisions are like market choices (choosing

between competing brands of beer), he embraced a laissez-faire position

on hiring. The problem with Jim's view is that discrimination in the labor

market is alive and well (e.g., it affects black and Latino job applicants 30

to 50 percent of the time) and that most jobs (as many as 80 percent) are

obtained through informal networks. 25 Jim himself acknowledged that be-

ing white is an advantage in America because "there's more people in the

world who are white and are racist against people that are black than vice

versa." However, Jim also believes that although blacks "perceive or feel"

like there is a lot of discrimination, he does not believe there is much dis-

crimination out there. Hence, by upholding a strict laissez-faire view on

hiring and, at the same time, ignoring the significant impact of past and

contemporary discrimination in the labor market, Jim can safely voice his

opposition to affirmative action in an apparently race-neutral way.

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"Nothing Should Be Forced upon People":

Keeping Things the Way They Are

A central tenet of liberal democracies is that governments should inter-

vene in economic and social matters as little as possible because the "in-

visible hand of the market" eventually balances states of disequilibrium.

A corollary of this tenet, and part of the American mythology, is the idea

that social change should be the outcome of a rational and democratic

process and not of the government's coercive capacity. 26 During the Jim

Crow era, the belief that racial change should happen through a slow,

evolutionary process in "peoples' hearts" rather than through govern-

mental actions was expressed in the phrase "you cannot legislate moral-

ity." 27 This old standpoint has been curiously reformulated in the modern

era to justify keeping racial affairs the way they are. These ideas appeared

occasionally in discussions on affirmative action, but most often in discus-

sions about school and residential integration in America.

Sonny, a student at MU, explained in typical fashion her position on

whether school segregation is the fault of government, whites, or blacks.

As almost all the students, Sonny first stated her belief that school inte-

gration is in principle a good thing to have: "In principle, yeah, I think

that's a good idea because like with, like with people interacting, they

will understand each other better in future generations." But Sonny also,

as most students, was not too fond of government attempts to remedy

school segregation or, in her words, "I, I don't — I mean, it should be done

if people want to do it. If people volunteer for it, and they want that part

of their lives, then they should do it, but the government should not force

people to bus if they don't want that." When asked to clarify her stance

on this matter, she added, "I don't think the government should impose

any legislation thinking that it will change people's hearts because people

have to change them on their own. You can't force them to say, 'Well, OK,

now that I have to bus my kid there, I like it.'"

DAS respondents were as adamant as students in arguing that it is not

the government's business to remedy racial problems. For example, Lynn,

a human resources manager in her early fifties, explained why there has

been so little school integration since the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education

decision:

I don't and that's another one. I do not believe in busing. The reason I don't

believe in busing, you know, I said I don't. I didn't encourage my children

to play with the neighborhood kids. I still felt that going to school in your

community was the key to developing a child's sense of community and I

still believe that. One of the reasons, another reason I moved from where I

was [was] that I didn't want my children to be bused. I didn't want to have

them got on a bus, especially me working. So I don't think that is an answer.

The Central Frames of Color-Blind Racism

83

I think the answer is education and helping people learn to make a life for

themselves and, you know, any type of social program that interacts, that

provides interaction between races I think is excellent. But I'm just not a

busing person.

Lynn wants equal opportunity in education as well as community

schools, a position that sounds perfectly reasonable. However, one would

expect Lynn to support doing something to make sure that communities

throughout America are diverse, a policy that other things being equal

would guarantee school integration. Yet, Lynn took a very strong laissez-

faire, anti-government-intervention stance on this matter. Lynn answered

as follows the question, "America has lots of all-white and all-black

neighborhoods. What do you think of this situation?"

I don't have a problem with all-white and all-black neighborhoods if that's

the choice of the people, the individuals. But, if it's forced either way, if I'm a

black person and I've come into the neighborhood and I want to live here

and selectively denied that option, that's wrong. But, again, there still has

to be some type of social interaction for growth and if the social interaction

takes place then, the cross-integration will take place, I think.

When pressed about what she thought could be done specifically to

increase the mixing of the races in neighborhoods, Lynn restated that this

could only be achieved "through educating (people) and encouraging

businesses." Lynn was not alone in having this abstract view on school

and neighborhood integration. Only one of the white respondents who

opposed busing in the interviews (69.7 percent of whites opposed busing

in the survey) provided a specific proposal that if implemented would

increase residential as well as school integration. 28

Individual Choice or an Excuse for Racial

Unfairness and Racially Based Choices?

Individualism 29 today has been recast as a justification for opposing

policies to ameliorate racial inequality because they are "group based"

rather than "case by case." In addition, the idea of individual choice is

used to defend whites' right to live and associate primarily with whites

(segregation) and for choosing whites exclusively as their mates. The

problem with how whites apply the notion of individualism to our pres-

ent racial conundrum is that a relation of domination-subordination still

ordains race relations in the United States (see chapters 1 and 4 in my

White Supremacy and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era). Thus, if minority

groups face group-based discrimination and whites have group-based

advantages, demanding individual treatment for all can only benefit the

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advantaged group. 30 And behind the idea of people having the right of

making their own "choices" lays the fallacy of racial pluralism — the false

assumption that all racial groups have the same power in the American

polity. Because whites have more power, their unfettered, so-called indi-

vidual choices help reproduce a form of white supremacy in neighbor-

hoods, schools, and society in general.

Lynn, a human resources manager, used the notion of individualism in

a very curious way. Although Lynn expressed her support for affirmative

action because "there's still a lot of discrimination," she thinks that "there

isn't as much discrimination as there used to be." Lynn also acknowl-

edged white males have advantages in society and said "the white male is

pretty much instilled" and "very much represses . . . um, people and other

minorities." Nevertheless, when it came to the possibility of affirmative

action affecting her, Lynn said,

Um, because affirmative action is based on a group as a whole, but when it

comes down to the individual, like if affirmative action were against me one

time, like it would anger me. I mean, because, you know, I as an individual

got ripped off and, you know, getting a job.

DAS respondents also used individualism to justify their racial views

and race-based preferences. For example, Mandi, a registered nurse in her

thirties, said she had no problems with neighborhood segregation. She

justified her potentially problematic position by saying that people have

the right to choose where and with whom they live.

Umm, I think that people select a neighborhood to live in that they are simi-

lar to and people, you know, whatever similarities they find [louder voice],

you know, it's race, economical level, religion, or, you know, whatever.

When you are looking at somebody you don't know what, what denomina-

tion they are or what political preference they have, but you can tell right off

in race. I think that they choose to live in a neighborhood that is their race.

NATURALIZATION: DECODING

THE MEANING OF "THAT'S THE WAY IT IS"

A frame that has not yet been brought to the fore by social scientists is

whites' naturalization of race-related matters. Although the naturaliza-

tion frame was the least-used frame of color-blind racism by respondents

in these two projects, about 50 percent of DAS respondents and college

students used it, particularly when discussing school or neighborhood

matters, to explain the limited contact between whites and minorities,

or to rationalize whites' preferences for whites as significant others. The

The Central Frames of Color-Blind Racism

85

word "natural" or the phrase "that's the way it is" is often interjected to

normalize events or actions that could otherwise be interpreted as ra-

cially motivated (residential segregation) or racist (preference for whites

as friends and partners). But, as social scientists know quite well, few

things that happen in the social world are "natural," particularly things

pertaining to racial matters. Segregation as well as racial preferences are

produced through social processes and that is the delusion/ illusion com-

ponent of this frame.

The importance and usefulness of this frame can be illustrated with

Sara, a student at MU who used the frame on three separate occasions.

Sara, for example, used the frame to answer the question on black self-

segregation.

Hmm, I don't really think it's a segregation. I mean, I think people, you

know, spend time with people that they are like, not necessarily in color,

but you know, their ideas and values and, you know, maybe their class

has something to do with what they're used to. But I don't really think it's

a segregation. I don't think I would have trouble, you know, approaching

someone of a different race or color. I don't think it's a problem. It's just that

the people that I do hang out with are just the people that I'm with all the

time. They're in my organizations and stuff like that.

Sara also used the naturalization frame to explain the paltry level of

school integration in the United States.

Well, I also think that, you know, where you are in school has to do with the

neighborhood that you grow up in and, like, I grew up in mainly all-white

communities so that community was who I was going to school with. And

if that community had been more black, then that would be, I guess, more

integrated and that would be just fine. I don't know if there's any way you

can change the places in which people live because I think there are gonna

be white communities and there are gonna be black communities and, you

know, I don't know how you can get two communities like in the same

school system.

The interviewer followed up Sara's answer with the question, "Why do

you think there are white communities and black communities?" Sara's

answer was, "Maybe like I said before, if people like to be with people

that they're similar with and it means, you know — well, I don't think it

has anything to do with color. I think it has to do with where they. . . ."

Sara did not complete her thought as a light seems to have clicked on in

her mind. She then proceeded to change her answer and acknowledged

that race has a bearing on how people select neighborhoods: "Well, I

guess it does [laughs]." The interviewer asked Sara if she thought her par-

ents would move into an almost all-black neighborhood. Sara employed

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all sorts of rhetorical maneuvers (see chapter 4) to defend her parents by

conveying the idea that racial considerations would have never been a

criterion for selecting a neighborhood.

Finally Liz, a student at SU, suggested that self -segregation is a univer-

sal process or, in her own words: "I do think they segregate themselves,

but I don't necessarily think it's on purpose. I think it's that, you know,

we all try to stay with our own kind so, therefore, you know, they get along

better with their own people or whatnot [my emphasis]." By universalizing

segregation as a natural phenomenon, Liz was able to justify even her

own racial preference for white mates. When asked if she had ever been

attracted to minority people, Liz said,

Um no, just because I wasn't really attracted to them, you know, I'm more

attracted to someone that's like kinda more like me. But, you know, and I

wouldn't say that, I mean, I like if he's good looking or not, you know, it's not

that, it's just I'm more attracted to someone white, I don't know why [laughs].

DAS respondents naturalized racial matters too, but in general did it

in a more crude fashion. For instance, Bill, a manager in a manufacturing

firm, explained the limited level school integration:

I don't think it's anybody's fault. Because people tend to group with their

own people. Whether it's white or black or upper-middle class or lower class

or, you now, upper class, you know, Asians. People tend to group with their

own. Doesn't mean if a black person moves into your neighborhood, they

shouldn't go to your school. They should and you should mix and welcome

them and everything else, but you can't force people together. If people want

to be together, they should intermix more. [Interviewer: OK. So the lack of mix-

ing is really just kind of an individual lack of desire?} Well, individuals, it's just

the way it is. You know, people group together for lots of different reasons:

social, religious. Just as animals in the wild, you know. Elephants group

together, cheetahs group together. You bus a cheetah into an elephant herd

because they should mix? You can't force that [laughs].

Bill's unflattering and unfitting metaphor comparing racial segregation

to the separation of species, however, was not the only crude way of using

the naturalization frame. For example, Earl, a small-time contractor in his

fifties, explained segregation in a matter-of-fact way.

I think you're never going to change that! I think it's just kind of, you know,

it's going to end up that way. . . . Every race sticks together and that's the

way it should be, you know. I grew up in a white neighborhood, you know,

most of the blacks will live in the black neighborhood. [Interviewer. So you

don't think there's anything wrong?} No. Well, they can move, they still have

the freedom to move anywhere they want anyway.

The Central Frames of Color-Blind Racism

87

A significant number of DAS respondents naturalized racial matters in

a straightforward manner. For example, Jim, a thirty-year-old computer

software salesperson for a large company, naturalized school segregation

as follows:

Eh, you know, it's more of the human nature's fault. It's not the govern-

ment's fault, right? The government doesn't tell people where to live. So

as people decide where to live or where to move into or where they wanna

feel comfortable, [they] move to where they feel comfortable. We all kinda

hang out with people that are like us. I mean, you look at Detroit, we have

a Mexican village, why do we have a Mexican village? Why aren't Mexican

people spread out all over on metro Detroit? Well, they like being near other

Mexican people; that way they could have a store that suited them close by

them, you know, those sort of things probably together. So, it's more human

nature that I would blame for it.

Despite whites' belief that residential and school segregation, friend-

ship, and attraction are natural and raceless occurrences, social scientists

have documented how racial considerations affect all these issues. For

example, residential segregation is created by white buyers searching

for white neighborhoods and aided by realtors, bankers, and sellers. 31 As

white neighborhoods develop, white schools follow — an outcome that

further contributes to the process of racial isolation. Socialized in a "white

habitus" (see chapter 5) and influenced by the Eurocentric culture, it is

no wonder whites interpret their racialized choices for white significant

others as "natural." They are the "natural" consequence of a white social-

ization process. 32

"THEY DON'T HAVE IT ALL TOGETHER": CULTURAL RACISM

Pierre- Andre Taguieff has argued that modern European racism does not

rely on an essentialist interpretation of minorities' endowments. 33 Instead,

it presents their presumed cultural practices as fixed features (hence, he

labels it as the "biologization of racism") and uses that as the rationale for

justifying racial inequality. Thus, Europeans may no longer believe Afri-

cans, Arabs, Asian Indians, or blacks from the West Indies are biologically

inferior, but they assail them for their presumed lack of hygiene, family

disorganization, and lack of morality. 34 This cultural racism frame is very

well established in the United States. Originally labeled as the "culture

of poverty" 35 in the 1960s, this tradition has resurfaced many times since,

resurrected by conservative scholars such as Charles Murray and Law-

rence Mead, liberals such as William Julius Wilson, and even radicals

such as Cornel West. 36 The essence of the American version of this frame

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is "blaming the victim," arguing that minorities' standing is a product of

their lack of effort, loose family organization, and inappropriate values.

Since there is little disagreement among social scientists about the

centrality of this frame in the post-civil rights era, I focus my attention

on highlighting what this frame allows whites to accomplish. I begin

my illustration of this frame with two, clear-cut examples of college

students who used it. The students agreed with the premise of the

question, "Many whites explain the status of blacks in this country as a

result of blacks lacking motivation, not having the proper work ethic,

or being lazy. What do you think?" The first student is Kara, an MU

student.

I think, to some extent, that's true. Just from, like, looking at the black people

that I've met in my classes and the few that I knew before college, not like

they're — I don't want to say waiting for a handout, but to some extent, that's

kind of what I'm like hinting at. Like, almost like they feel like they were

discriminated against hundreds of years ago, now what are you gonna give

me? You know, or maybe even it's just their background, that they've never,

like maybe they're the first generation to be in college, so they feel like just

that is enough for them.

The second quote is from Kim, a student at SU:

Yeah, I totally agree with that. I don't think, you know, they're all like that,

but, I mean, it's just that if it wasn't that way, why would there be so many

blacks living in the projects? You know, why would there be so many poor

blacks? If they worked hard, they could make it just as high as anyone else

could. You know, I just think that's just, you know, they're raised that way

and they see what their parents are like so they assume that's the way it

should be. And they just follow the roles their parents had for them and

don't go anywhere.

When cultural racism is used in combination with the "minimization

of racism" frame, the results are ideologically deadly. If people of color

say they experience discrimination, whites, such as Kara and Kim, do not

believe them and claim they use discrimination as an "excuse" to hide

the central reason why they are behind whites in society: their presumed

"laziness."

Although Kara and Kim used the cultural racism frame in a crude form,

most students did not. They articulated their culture of poverty views in a

gentler, at times even "compassionate," way. For example, Ann, a student

at WU, inserted the frame in her answer to a question about why blacks

as a group fare worse than whites academically.

The Central Frames of Color-Blind Racism

89

Um, I guess I would have to say primarily family structure. Maybe it's not

[being] able to support the child and, you know, in school and really encour-

age. It might be that it's a single-parent family and it's necessary [for them]

to get out and get a job, you know, a full-time job and work a part-time job

and still try to go to school. Maybe it's not encouraged as much for, like long

term, it's mainly survival. I don't know, something, income; if the family is

really skimping by it would be really far-fetched, well, it wouldn't be prob-

ably necessarily the first thing that a child from [such] a family would think

of, you know, expensive college rather than paying the rent, you know what

I mean [laughs]? So, I mean, you know, the priorities are different.

Although Ann's arguments seem "reasonable" (poor people may have

a different set of priorities than other people based on their economic situ-

ation), her explanation is wanting because it avoids mentioning the insti-

tutional effects of discrimination in the labor, housing, and educational

markets and the well-documented 37 impact that discrimination has on

middle- and upper-middle-class blacks. More significantly, Ann's failure

to recognize how old- and new-fashioned discrimination affects blacks'

life chances is not an argumentative slip, but the way in which most

whites construe the situation of blacks, as evidenced by how respondents

in both samples used similar arguments in answering questions about

blacks' status.

This kinder and gentler way of using the cultural frame was the pre-

ferred choice of students. For example, Jay, a student at WU, explained as

follows why blacks have a worse overall standing than whites:

Hmm, I think it's due to lack of education. I think because if they didn't grow

up in a household that afforded them the time to go to school and they had

to go out and get jobs right away, I think it is just a cycle [that] perpetuates

things, you know. I mean, I can't say that blacks can't do it because, obvi-

ously, there are many, many of them [that] have succeeded in getting good

jobs and all that.

Jay, as most whites, admits to the "exceptional black." However, Jay

immediately goes back to the gentle cultural argument:

So it's possible that the cycle seems to perpetuate itself because — I mean,

let's say they go out and get jobs and they settle down much earlier than

they would normally if they had gone to school and then they have kids at a

young age and they — these kids — have to go and get jobs and so.

How did DAS respondents use this cultural frame? They relied on

this frame as often as students did but were significantly more likely to

use it in a straightforward and crude manner. The following two cases

exemplify how most DAS respondents used this frame. First is Isaac, an

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engineer in his fifties. In response to the question comparing blacks' and

whites' overall standing, Isaac argued that few blacks have the education

to work as engineers. This led to the following exchange between Isaac

and the interviewer:

Interviewer. So you feel maybe there's a lack of interest in education that

black people have?

Isaac: They want to get a shortcut to make money. There's no urgency to

get education. They want to make, to get money faster than whites. They

don't want to take the time to get educated, they want to get money fast.

Interviewer. So they also don't put the time into developing their educational

skills?

Isaac: Yeah the way you learn, the way you grow, is the way you become.

Interviewer: Some people say that minorities are worse off than whites be-

cause they lack motivation, are lazy, or do not have the proper values to

succeed in our society. What do you think?

Isaac: Right now I think our minorities are lazy. They don't have the patience

to keep going.

Ian, the manager of information security at an automotive company,

explained why blacks are worse off than whites as follows: "The majority

of 'em just don't strive to do anything, to make themselves better. Again,

I've seen that all the way through. T do this today, I'm fine, I'm happy

with it, I don't need anything better.' Never, never, never striving or giv-

ing extra to, to make themselves better."

Ian's perception of blacks as lazy emerged from his understanding

of blacks as culturally deficient. This view was clearly expressed in his

response to the question, "Do you think that the races are naturally dif-

ferent?"

Well I think that genes have something, some play in this, but I think a lot of

it is past history of the people and the way they're brought up. You look at

Chinese, if you're gonna get ahead in China, you've gotta be very intellectual

and you've gotta be willing to, uh, to fight for everything that you're gonna

get. Ja-Japan is the same way. For a kid just to get into college, they gonna

take two years of going through entrance exams to get in. Then you kinda

look at the blacks' situation. It's like, "Well, because of slavery, I ought to be

given this for nothing, so I don't have to work for it, just give it to me." So

culture and their upbringing is the big part of this.

Although Ian came close to the old biological view ("Well, I think genes

have something, some play in this"), overall he made use of the cultural

frame to explain blacks' status (Asians do well because they "gotta be

intellectual," whereas blacks believe that because of slavery they do not

have to work).

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91

MINIMIZATION OF RACISM: WHITES'

DECLINING SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE THESIS

When William Julius Wilson published The Declining Significance of Race

in 1978, he made many whites in academia feel good about themselves.

Wilson's main claim — that class rather than race was the central obstacle

for black mobility — was an argument that had been brewing among

whites for quite a while. Yet, whites believe that discrimination exists.

For example, when white and black respondents in the DAS survey were

given the statement, "Discrimination against blacks is no longer a prob-

lem in the United States," a high proportion of both groups (82.5 percent

of whites and 89.5 percent of blacks) "disagreed" or "strongly disagreed"

with that statement. Although whites and blacks believe discrimination

is still a problem, they dispute its salience as a factor explaining blacks'

collective standing. Thus, in response to the more specific statement,

"Blacks are in the position that they are today as a group because of pres-

ent day discrimination," only 32.9 percent of whites "agreed" or "strongly

agreed" (compared to 60.5 percent of blacks). This means that in general

whites believe discrimination has all but disappeared, whereas blacks

believe that discrimination — old and new — is alive and well.

College students were more likely than DAS respondents to give lip

service to the existence of discrimination. Because students for this study

were taking social science courses at the time of the interviews, they may

have become sensitized to the significance of discrimination as well as

to the new character of contemporary discrimination. However, despite

this sensitization, few believed discrimination and institutionalized rac-

ism are the reasons minorities lag behind whites in this society. In gen-

eral, the students articulated their declining significance of race thesis in

three ways. A plurality (eighteen of forty-one) used an indirect strategy

of denial set by one of the following two phrases, "I am not black" or "I

don't see discrimination" (see chapter 4 for an analysis of the functions of

these phrases), others (nine of forty-one) minimized racism directly, and

yet others (seven of forty-one) argued minorities make things look racial

when they are not.

The following example illustrates how students used the indirect strat-

egy of denial. The response of Mary, a student at SU, to the statement,

"Many blacks and other minorities claim that they do not get access to

good jobs because of discrimination and that when they get the jobs they

are not promoted at the same speed as their white peers," was,

I think before you really start talking about hiring practices and promotion

practices, you have to look at credentials. I mean, you know, I've only really

had one job. I worked for a general contractor so it was basically me in the

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office all day with him, my boss. But I, in fact, you have to look at credentials.

I mean, I don't know if, you know, a white person gets a job over a minority,

I can't sit here and say, "Well, that's discrimination," because I don't know

what the factors were. This person got a master's degree versus a bachelor's

degree, or more in-depth training than this person, you know? I mean, I

definitely do not doubt that [discrimination] happens, that minorities get

passed over for promotions and that they are not hired based on their race.

I have absolutely no doubt that it happens. I think that before you can sit

there and start calling a lot of things discrimination, you need to look into

the background, the credentials behind it.

Rather than stating "I don't believe minorities experience discrimina-

tion," Mary suggested they may not get jobs or promotions because they

lack the credentials. And although Mary, as most whites, recognizes

discrimination exists ("I definitely do not doubt that [discrimination]

happens"), she clearly believes most claims are bogus ("I think that before

you can sit there and start calling a lot of things discrimination, you need

to look into the background, the credentials behind it").

The next example is of students who minimized the significance of

racism directly. Andy, a student at WU, answered a question on whether

discrimination is the central reason why blacks are behind whites today

by saying, "I think they do." Yet his answer was wanting, since he could

not provide a meaningful explanation of how discrimination affects

minorities' life chances. More importantly, Andy's answers to the other

questions minimized the salience of racism. For instance, his answer to

the question of whether or not discrimination affects the chances of mi-

norities getting jobs and promotions was, "I think that there's probably

less than it used to be, but that it still happens. It's just in isolated places

or, you know, it happens in different places, but in most jobs, I think it

probably does not happen." When asked to elaborate, Andy stated he

believes the reason why blacks do not get good jobs is, "if anything, it's

probably education" because "you can't apply for certain jobs without a

lot of education."

The last example is of students who argued blacks make situations

racial that are not. Janet, an SU student, answered all the questions

on discrimination by denying that discrimination is a salient factor in

minorities' life chances and suggesting alternative interpretations. For

instance, Janet's answer to the same question, on whether or not dis-

crimination is the central reason why blacks lag behind whites, was,

"I would say it depends on the individual. I'm sure there are some . . .

that do and others [that] don't, so. . . ." When asked to clarify, she said,

"Right. But I would say for the most part, most of them don't unless

they make it out to be the case." When the interviewer asked Janet if she

thought most claims of discrimination by minorities were a perception

The Central Frames of Color-Blind Racism

93

issue, she replied, "If they looked at it as a different way or something,

they might see — might not see it as racism, you see what I'm saying?

[Interviewer: You are saying that they are seeing more than is actually out

there?] Right." When asked about discrimination in jobs, Janet answered

in a blunt fashion:

I would say that's a bunch of crap [laughs]. I mean, if they're qualified, they'll

hire you and if you are not qualified, then you don't get the job. It's the same

way with, once you get the job, if you are qualified for a promotion, you'll

get the promotion. It's the same way with white, blacks, Asians, whatever. If

you do the job, you'll get the job.

DAS respondents used similar argumentative strategies to deny the

significance of discrimination. The strategy they used the most was

direct minimization (eighteen of sixty-six), followed by outright denial

(thirteen of sixty-six), stating that minorities make things racial (eleven

of sixty-six), and indirect minimization (three of sixty-six). The remain-

ing respondents (twenty of sixty-six) include a few who sincerely believe

discrimination is important (see chapter 7) and others who denied the

centrality of discrimination in their own peculiar way.

The first case exemplifies DAS respondents who minimized the sig-

nificance of discrimination directly. Joann, a poor white woman in her

fifties who works in a large chain store, answered the direct discrimina-

tion question by stating, "I don't see any in the store." When asked about

discrimination against minorities in general, Joann said,

I don't think it's as bad as it was. It probably needs improvement. What

[society] needs is a knowledgeable crew and I think that is the truth there. I

think that the work will have to be done up continually until we're all one

big happy family. [Interviewer: Do you foresee that happening?] It wouldn't

surprise me. My great-granddaughter might marry a black, I don't know. I

have no ideal

The next case is an example of respondents who denied discrimina-

tion outright. It is worth pointing out that all the DAS respondents who

used this strategy were from working- or lower-class backgrounds. Scott,

a twenty-three-year-old drafter for a mechanical engineering company,

answered the direct question on discrimination as follows:

I don't — nowadays I don't, I don't really feel that way, I really don't at all.

Maybe like when I was younger I would notice it, but right now I don't really

feel that there's too much segregation anymore. If it is because of the person,

you know, from their past experience. And, I mean, if you got a record,

you're not gonna go too far, you know. So then they might feel like "fust be-

ing held back just because, you know, just 'cause I'm black."

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The interviewer followed up Scott's answer with the question, "So you

don't think that discrimination is a factor in most blacks' lives nowa-

days?" His answer was, "It might be just because of their past and their

attitudes toward life. But if you just took it as everyday life and just went

with it, no, I don't feel it at all, I don't see it. I don't practice it and my

friends, all my friends [don't] practice it."

Next are examples of respondents who argued blacks make things ra-

cial that are not. Sandra, a retail salesperson in her early forties, explained

her view on discrimination as follows:

I think if you are looking for discrimination, I think it's there to be found. But

if you make the best of any situation, and if you don't use it as an excuse. I think

sometimes it's an excuse because people felt they deserved a job, whatever!

I think if things didn't go their way I know a lot of people have a tendency

to use prejudice or racism as whatever as an excuse. I think in some ways, yes

there [are] people who are prejudiced. It's not only blacks, it's about Spanish,

or women. In a lot of ways there [is] a lot of reverse discrimination. It's just

what you wanna make of it.

Finally, I provide an example of respondents who used the indirect

minimization strategy. Dave, an engineer in his forties who owns a small-

time employment agency, answered the direct question on discrimina-

tion by saying, "[laughs] I don't know any blacks so I don't know. But,

in general, I probably have to say it's true." When asked for clarification,

Dave stated,

Oh that's a hard one to just, well, I guess it comes down to stereotypes

though like I said earlier. It just — some people may try to say that some

blacks don't work as hard as whites. So, in looking for a job they may feel like

they didn't get the job because they have been discriminated against because

they were black, that's very possible. That may not really be, but as a person,

they make the assumption.

Dave explained blacks' inferior status as compared to whites by sug-

gesting that it "really comes down to individuals" and that he has "espe-

cially noted that if you want a job, [there are] jobs out there." In this reply

Dave intimates his belief that racial discrimination is not a factor in the

labor market since "[there are] jobs out there."

The last case is of DAS respondents who did not fit the overall strate-

gies and used sui generis arguments to deny the significance of racial

discrimination. Henrietta, a transsexual school teacher in his fifties, said

the following in response to the question on discrimination:

[Nine-second pause] Trying to be an unbiased observer because as a trans-

sexual I am discriminated against. I think if people act responsible they will

The Central Frames of Color-Blind Racism

95

not be discriminated against. People who are acting irresponsible, in other

words, demanding things, ah, "I need this" or "You did this because of my

skin color," yeah, then they will be discriminated against. People who are

intelligent present themselves in a manner that is appropriate for the situa-

tion and will not be discriminated against.

Thus, Henrietta suggests that blacks who experience discrimination

deserve so because they act irresponsibly or complain too much.

CONCLUSION

In this chapter I illustrated how whites use the four central frames of

color-blind racism, namely, abstract liberalism, naturalization, cultural

racism, and minimization of racism. These frames are central to the views

of whites, young (college-student sample) and old (DAS respondents),

and serve them as an interpretive matrix from where to extract arguments

to explain a host of racial issues. More significantly, together these frames

form an impregnable yet elastic wall that barricades whites from the

United States' racial reality. The trick is in the way the frames bundle with

each other, that is, in the wall they form. Whites, for example, would have

a tough time using the abstract liberalism frame if they could not resort to

the minimization of racism frame as well. Precisely because they use these

frames the way children use building blocks, whites can say things such

as "I am all for equal opportunity, that's why I oppose affirmative action"

and also say "Everyone has almost the same opportunities to succeed in

this country because discrimination and racism are all but gone." And if

anyone dares to point out that in this land of milk and honey there is a

tremendous level of racial inequality — a fact that could deflate the balloon

of color blindness — they can argue this is due to minorities' schools, lack

of education, family disorganization, or lack of proper values and work

ethic. In short, whites can blame minorities (blacks in particular) for their

own status.

But what if someone pokes holes in whites' color-blind story by point-

ing out that whites live mostly in white neighborhoods, marry and be-

friend mostly whites, interact mostly with whites in their jobs, and send

their children to white schools or, if they attend mixed schools, make sure

they take most of their classes with white children. Whites have two dis-

cursive options to avoid the potentially devastating effects of these argu-

ments. They can resort to the abstract liberalism frame and say something

like "I support integration, but I do not believe in forcing people to do

anything that they do not want to do" or "People have the right to make

their own individual choices and no one can interfere." Alternatively,

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they can naturalize the whiteness in which they live ("Blacks like living

with blacks, and whites like living with whites . . . it's a natural thing").

As I documented in this chapter, whites mix and match arguments as they

see fit. Therefore, someone can say, "Segregation is a natural thing" but

also say that "I believe that no one has the right of preventing people from

moving into a neighborhood." These frames then form a formidable wall

because they provide whites a seemingly nonracial way of stating their

racial views without appearing irrational or rabidly racist.

But if the ideological wall of color-blind racism were not pliable, a few

hard blows would suffice to bring it down. That is why the flexibility of

the frames is so useful. Color-blind racism's frames are pliable because

they do not rely on absolutes ("All blacks are . . ." or "Discrimination

ended in 1965"). Instead, color-blind racism gives some room for excep-

tions ("Not all blacks are lazy, but most are") and allows for a variety of

ways of holding on to the frames — from crude and straightforward to

gentle and indirect. Regarding the former, almost every white respondent

in these studies mentioned the exceptional black ("Well, Robert, my black

friend, is not like that"), agreed in principle with racially progressive no-

tions ("I believe that school integration is great because we can learn so

much from each other" or "Gee, I wish I could see the day when we have

the first black president"), or even joined Martin Luther King Jr. in the

dream of color blindness ("In two or three generations race will disappear

and we will all just be Americans"). Regarding the latter, whites used

the color-blind frames in crude ways, displaying resentment and anger

toward minorities ("Blacks are God-damned lazy") or in compassionate

ways ("It is terrible the way they live in those neighborhoods, with those

schools, without fathers, with crime just around the corner ... it saddens

me whenever I see all that on TV").

The pliability of the color-blind wall is further enhanced by the style

of color blindness. For instance, if whites find themselves in a rhetorical

bind, such as having disclosed a personal taste for whiteness or a dislike

for blackness, they can always utter a disclaimer such as, "I am not preju-

diced," or "If I ever fall in love with a black person, the race thing will

never be an obstacle for us getting together." They can tiptoe around the

most dangerous racial minefields because the stylistic elements of color

blindness provide them the necessary tools to get in and out of almost any

discussion. I examine these tools in detail in the next chapter.

NOTES

1. John Dollard, Caste and Class in a Southern Town, 2d ed. (New York: Double-

day, 1949).

The Central Frames of Color-Blind Racism

97

2. For discussions on the "defensive beliefs" that supported Jim Crow, see

Dollard, Caste and Class; Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem

and Modern Democracy (New York: Harper Brothers, 1944); Allison Davis et al.,

Deep South (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1941); and Charles S. Johnson,

Patterns of Negro Segregation (New York: Harper Brothers, 1943).

3. This is taken from the title of conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza's

book, The End of Racism: Principles for a Multiracial Society (New York: Free Press,

1995). This book is, among other things, a crude example of color-blind racism.

4. J. B. Thompson, Studies in the Theory of Ideology (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 1984).

5. All ideologies aspire to be hegemonic, to rule the hearts of rulers and ruled.

However, only those that incorporate elements of the "common sense" of the

oppressed (albeit in partial and refracted manner) can truly become hegemonic.

6. See John Gray, Liberalism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,

1986).

7. All these quotes are from The Communist Manifesto. See David McLellan

(ed.), Karl Marx: Selected Writings (London: Oxford University Press, 1982). For a

detailed intellectual assault at the farce of liberalism, see Karl Marx and Frederick

Engels, The German Ideology (New York: International, 1985).

8. For a marvelous discussion of this point and of "racial capitalism," see Ce-

dric J. Robinson, Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition (Chapel

Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000).

9. Good examples of this trend are Andrea T. Baumeister, Liberalism and the

"Politics of Difference" (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000), and Patrick

Neal, Liberalism and Its Discontents (New York: New York University Press, 1997).

Although Baumeister skillfully shows the tensions in traditional liberal discourse

that foreshadow some of today's debates and provides a reasonable philosophi-

cal resolution based on "value pluralism," she fails to point out the exclusionary

character of liberalism and the Enlightenment. Neal's account produces two

interesting modifications of liberalism: the idea that liberal states cannot be neu-

tral and the notion of "modus vivendi liberalism," which entails an open liberal

approach to social issues. Yet, like Baumeister, Neal is silent about the racism of

the founding fathers of liberalism and the meaning of their racial exclusions for

today's liberal project.

10. Charles W. Mills, The Racial Contract (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press,

1997), 27.

11. The quotes by Kant and Voltaire as well as the views of Mill on slavery

and colonialism can be found in chapter 2 of David Theo Goldberg, Racist Culture

(Cambridge, UK: Blackwell, 1993). See also Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and Am-

bivalence (Ithaca, NY.: Cornell University Press, 1991).

12. Richard Bellamy, "Liberalism," in Contemporary Political Ideologies, edited

by Roger Eatwall and Anthony Wright, 23^9 (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1993).

13. See Dana D. Nelson, National Citizenship: Capitalist Citizenship and the

Imagined Fraternity of White Men (Durham, N.C: Duke University Press, 1998),

and chapter 5 in Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States (New York:

HarperCollins, 1980).

14. From a social movements perspective, "liberal groups are those that at-

tempt to reform social systems for the purpose of giving all groups equal oppor-

98

Chapter 3

tunities." Margaret L. Andersen, Thinking about Women: Sociological Perspectives on

Sex and Gender (New York: Macmillan, 1988), 299.

15. For a scathing critique of color-blind "radicals" such as Todd Gitlin, Mi-

chael Tomasky, Richard Rorty, Jim Sleeper, Barbara Epstein, and Eric Hobsbawm,

see chapter 4 in Robin D. G. Kelley, Yo' Mama's Disfunktional: Fighting the Culture

Wars in Urban America (Boston: Beacon, 1997).

16. The classic statement on the subject still is William Ryan, Blaming the Victim

(New York: Vintage, 1976).

17. Charles S. Johnson, Racial Attitudes: Interviews Revealing Attitudes of Northern

and Southern White Persons, of a Wide Range of Occupational and Educational Levels,

toward Negroes (Nashville, Term.: Social Science Institute, Fisk University, 1946),

153.

18. It is important to note that cultural racism was part and parcel of European

and American racisms. My point is that this theme has supplanted biological rac-

ism in importance and effectiveness.

19. Katherine S. Newman, Declining Fortunes: The Withering of the American

Dream (New York: Basic, 1993), 168.

20. James Byrd was a black man murdered by three white supremacist ex-

convicts in 1998 in Jasper, Texas.

21. High-level Texaco executives were caught on tape saying some racially

insensitive things about blacks and other minorities a few years back, which led

them to settle a lawsuit brought by minority employees accusing the company of

racial discrimination in pay and promotion.

22. I borrow the phrase "reasonable racism" from Jody David Armour, Negro-

phobia and Reasonable Racism (New York: New York University Press, 1997).

23. The former label is used in the works of Lawrence Bobo and his coauthors

(see chapter 1) and the latter by Philomena Essed, in Diversity: Gender, Color, and

Culture (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1996).

24. When the question at hand could be perceived as racial, white support de-

clined significantly. Thus, for example, only 21 percent of whites agreed with the

proposition to increase welfare spending.

25. The specific citations for these facts can be found in the introduction, or the

reader can consult my chapter, coauthored with Amanda E. Lewis, "The 'New

Racism': Toward an Analysis of the U.S. Racial Structure, 1960-1990s," in Race,

Nationality, and Citizenship, edited by Paul Wong (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1999).

26. Bringing about social change in this country has never been a rational, civi-

lized feat, particularly when racial considerations have been involved. Force and

resistance have accompanied the most significant changes in America's political

and racial order. We used force to achieve our independence from Britain, to keep

the Union together, and to end state-sanctioned Jim Crow. An excellent little book

on this subject is Irving J. Sloan, Our Violent Past: An American Chronicle (New

York: Random House, 1970).

27. Southern sociologist Howard W. Odum took William Graham Sumner's

idea of "mores" and suggested that racial conflicts must be solved through an

evolutionary approach that he labeled "racial adjustments." In a similar vein,

northern sociologist Robert E. Park argued that race contacts went through "race

cycles" that ended in racial assimilation. See Howard W. Odum, American Social

The Central Frames of Color-Blind Racism

99

Problems (New York: Holt, 1939), and Robert E. Park, Race and Culture (Glencoe,

111.: Free Press, 1950).

28. One respondent suggested a tax-incentive policy to stimulate residential

integration.

29. Despite its elitist origins in American history (see chapter 5 in Zinn, A

People's History of the United States), the notion of individualism has been used

by social reform movements such as the Jacksonian democracy movement of the

nineteenth century, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s ("one man,

one vote"), and the woman's suffrage movement of the early twentieth century

("one person, one vote") to advance truly inclusive democratic agendas.

30. David Ingram, Group Rights: Reconciling Equality and Difference (Lawrence:

University Press of Kansas, 2000).

31. For a review, see chapter 4 in my White Supremacy and Racism in the Post-

Civil Rights Era (Boulder, Colo.: Rienner, 2001).

32. On all these matters, see Beverly Daniel Tatum, "Why Are All the Black Kids

Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?": And Other Conversations about Race (New York:

Basic, 1997).

33. Most of the work of this important French scholar has not been published

in English. A few of his pieces have appeared in Telos and, fortunately, the Uni-

versity of Minnesota Press translated his La Force du prejuge: Essai sur le racisme

et ses doubles. Pierre-Andre Taguieff, The Force of Prejudice: Racism and Its Doubles

(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001). See also Pierre-Andre Tagu-

ieff (ed.), Face au racisme, Tome II: Analyse, hypotheses, perspectives (Paris: La Decou-

verte, 1991).

34. See my "'This Is a White Country': The Racial Ideology of the Western Na-

tions of the World-System," Research in Politics and Society 6, no. 1 (1999): 85-102.

35. The culture of poverty argument was formally developed by anthropologist

Oscar Lewis. His claim was that the poor develop a culture based on adaptations

to their poverty status, which is then transmitted from generation to generation

and becomes an obstacle for moving out of poverty. Although Lewis formulated

his thesis as a class-based one, because the characters in his famous books, The

Children of Sanchez (1961) and La Vida (1965), were Mexican and Puerto Rican,

respectively, it was almost impossible not to interpret his argument as especially

pertinent for understanding minorities' well-being in America. Lewis's argument

was roundly condemned by many of his contemporaries, but it stuck in scholarly

policy circles as well as among conservative politicians and a few "liberals" such

as Senator Patrick Moynihan.

36. Charles A. Murray, Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980 (New

York: Basic, 1984); Lawrence M. Mead, Beyond Entitlement: The Social Obligations

of Citizenship (New York: Free Press, 1986); William Julius Wilson, The Truly Dis-

advantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy (Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1987); Cornel West, Race Matters (Boston: Beacon, 1993).

37. See Sharon Collins, Black Corporate Executives: The Making and Breaking of a

Black Middle Class (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997); Ellis Cose, The

Rage of a Privileged Class (New York: HarperCollins, 1995); and Joe R. Feagin and

Melvin Sikes, Living with Racism: The Black Middle-Class Experience (Boston: Bea-

con, 1994).