Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: situating the present
- Part I Debates
- Introduction to Part I
- 2 Race and the science of difference in the age of genomics
- 3 Color-blind egalitarianism as the new racial norm
- 4 Getting over the Obama hope hangover: the new racism in ‘post-racial’ America
- 5 Does a recognition of mixed race move us toward post-race?
- 6 Acting ‘as’ and acting ‘as if’: two approaches to the politics of race and migration
- 7 Can race be eradicated? The post-racial problematic
- Part II Perspectives
- 15 Conclusion: back to the future
- Index
- References
3 - Color-blind egalitarianism as the new racial norm
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: situating the present
- Part I Debates
- Introduction to Part I
- 2 Race and the science of difference in the age of genomics
- 3 Color-blind egalitarianism as the new racial norm
- 4 Getting over the Obama hope hangover: the new racism in ‘post-racial’ America
- 5 Does a recognition of mixed race move us toward post-race?
- 6 Acting ‘as’ and acting ‘as if’: two approaches to the politics of race and migration
- 7 Can race be eradicated? The post-racial problematic
- Part II Perspectives
- 15 Conclusion: back to the future
- Index
- References
Summary
Profound changes are currently taking place in the United States in terms of how race, race relations and perceptions of social mobility are defined, perceived and understood. It is now the case that a majority of white Americans subscribe to a color-blind narrative of society where institutional racism has been eliminated and the American Creed of ‘racial equality for all’ has been achieved. The perception held by a majority of whites is that skin color is no longer the basis for discriminatory treatment, nor does race play a role in shaping socioeconomic mobility. White Americans can now point to President Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States, as proof that the goals of the civil rights movement of the 1960s have been achieved (Ludwig 2004). As many whites now see it, the United States has shifted from a country where race was the means by which all socioeconomic resources were allocated to a meritocractic country. This perspective, which I define as color-blind egalitarianism, is the tendency to claim that racial equality is now the norm, while simultaneously ignoring or discounting the real and ongoing ways in which institutional racism continues to disadvantage racial minorities. Color-blind egalitarianism reflects the fact that most whites, as expressed in national polling data, now view race as a benign social marker that has little or no bearing on an individual’s or group’s educational, economic or occupational mobility. This ‘leveled playing field’ perspective of society held by most whites is now the commonsense understanding of race relations, even though an extensive body of research documents how and in what ways institutional racism and racial discrimination continue to shape the life chances of racial minorities. In this chapter, I examine how color-blind racial egalitarianism came to dominate the narrative of race in the United States and the implications which this perspective holds for both race relations and the challenges which scholars face when they attempt to examine race-based social inequalities.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Theories of Race and EthnicityContemporary Debates and Perspectives, pp. 40 - 56Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014
References
- 12
- Cited by