Color Blind Racism

At the beginning of this semester, I thought that racism was something that could be chalked up only as the discrimination African Americans suffer, but I have learned that racism goes beyond that. To me, the three most significant topics I learned were new racism, the four frames of color-blind racism, and gentrification. In my opinion, these are the topics that explain why racism is still a part of our society. For example, before this class, I knew racism still existed in our society, but I was very unaware that the racism found today had eventually grown and become so obvious it needed its own term. As we covered in class, I learned that new racism is the that explains that racism where overt statements, statements, and policies are no

longer accepted, but more subtler racism found in work, labor, or housing had come along to take its place. This is due to that concept of new racism in which people have found ways to keep minorities down by either rejecting them because of their names on a resume, or because they are “foreigners” so that must mean there is a language barrier.
As we transitioned from new racism, we covered what color-blind racism meant, and before this class, I had heard that term probably once before, and yet wasn’t quite sure what it meant.

I began to understand that things such as color-blind racism (ideology where racial inequality has been explained because of nonracial dynamics like the economy, naturally occurring phenomena, or non-white’s cultural limitations) were all part of this umbrella of new racism people could hide under. Besides that, color-blind racism constitutes of four frames: abstract liberalism (“equality of opportunity”), cultural racism, naturalization (“just the way things are”), and minimization of racism. This class taught me that the existence of concepts such as these were a manifestation of people who are so desperate to show that they are not racist, but still want to discriminate against minorities in every aspect in the society. The context reviewed in this class was quite opening since it allowed me understand that somewhere along the way people have come to believe that they have a right to choose what is racist and what is not, just to make themselves feel better about what they do or say. Finally, the unit about gentrification and housing inequality, even though it is a very sensitive topic, it allowed me to understand that society fights so hard to keep minorities “in their place” to allow the upper class to prosper in life. The documentary “Class Divide” was an amazing depiction of what gentrification can do to one single community, and how the advancement of the upper class does not outweigh the cost minorities

suffer.
I think two of the major aspects of how racism looks is labor and housing inequality. As we reviewed these concepts in class, it became clear that people who are struggling to with unemployment or with housing are minorities such as African Americans or Hispanics. As we learned for labor market inequality, we read this article where they did audit studies using white or black names on the resume. Their findings showed that for every 10 resumes a white person sent to get a call-back, an African American had to send 15.
For students taking this class next semester, I have two pieces of advice. The first one is to take this class seriously, not because it will hurt your GPA, but because it’s a class that deals with serious and sensitive topics that classmates might have gone through, so it’s important to be respectful. The second is to be eager to come to class to learn and participate. You may be thinking that it will be boring and useless, but it might help you realize what you want to do with tour life, like it did for me.