Excerpt: Color-Blind Privilege: The Social and Political Functions of Erasing the Color Line in Post Race America

Gallagher, Charles A. [2003] 2005. "Color-Blind Privilege: The Social and Political Functions of Erasing the Color Line in Post Race America". Pp. 189-195 in Understanding Society, 2nd ed., edited by Margaret L. Andersen, Kim Logio, and Howard Taylor. Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning, Inc.

Countless advertisements, television shows, movies, and other images of race relations in the media seem to suggest that racism is done and over, or that "America is on the verge, or has already become, a truly color-blind nation". Gallagher cites surveys and statistical data, as well as images in popular culture, that suggest most whites consider the playing field level and racism a thing of the past while most blacks see it as quite uneven.

In this rare instance of a recent functional analysis (from a subjective perspective, but I'll take it), Gallagher explains how many whites are able to take comfort in the myth of post-race America. Indeed, images of successful blacks like Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Advisor Condelleeza Rice, and now President Barack Obama all prove to whites that color-blindness has been achieved. Additionally, racial "styles" and behaviors are commoditized to transform race into an issue of culture that ignores social status, and that mass-production and consumption by large corporations increasingly make America culturally homogeneous.

The effect of post-race thinking, Gallagher argues, is catastrophic:

The color-blind perspective removes from personal thought and public discussion any taint or suggestion of white supremacy or white guilt while legitimizing the existing social, political and economic arrangements which privilege whites. The perspective insinuates that class and culture, and not institutional racism, are responsible for social inequality. Color-blindness allows whites to define themselves as politically progressive and racially tolerant as they proclaim their adherence to a belief system that does not judge individuals by the "color of their skin."

This belief system is the basis for white outrage over affirmative action and claims of job discrimination. Whites who believe that the current social system is fair and balanced find satisfaction and comfort in their positions of privilege, believing them to have been earned legitimately. The myth also allows them to participate in "laissez-faire racism" by blaming blacks themselves for not working hard enough or seizing opportunities.

Part coping mechanism, part ignorance, and part hegemony, the myth of color-blindness is one of a number of cultural myths that define the American social experience (see also Horatio Alger myths and the myth of progress). The identification and study of these myths and their effects will help to understand the American social character and the institutions that shape it.

Relevance: 5/5 (very relevant)
Salience: 5/5 (very salient)

References:

• The Gallup Organization. 1997. "Black White Relations in the U.S." The Gallup Poll Monthly, June 10, 1-5. - factual. - as an example.
  
• Shipler, David. 1998. A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America. New York: Vintage. - cited in agreement.
  
• Moore, David. 1995. "Americans' Most Important Sources of Information: Local News." The Gallup Poll Monthly, September, 2-5. - as an example.
  
• Moore, David, and Lydia Saad. 1995. "No Immediate Signs that Simpson Trial Intensified Racial Animosity." The Gallup Poll Monthly, October, 2-5. - as an example.
  
• Kaiser Foundation. 1995. The Four Americas: Government and Social Policy through the Eyes of America's Multi-Racial and Multi-Ethnic Society. Menlo Park, CA: Kaiser Family Foundation. - cited in agreement.
• Frankenberg, O. Ruth. 2001. "The Mirage of an Unmarked Whiteness." In The Making and Unmaking of Whiteness, edited by Birget Brander Rasmussen, Eric Klineberg, Irene J. Nexica, and Matt Wray. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. - cited in agreement.
  
• Bobo, Lawrence, and James R. Kluegel. 1997. "Status, Ideology, and Dimensions of Whites' Racial Beliefs and Attitudes: Progress and Stagnation." In Racial Attitudes in the 1990s: Continuity and Change, edited by Steven A. Tuch and Jack K. Martin. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. - cited in agreement.
• Roediger, David. 1991. The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class. New York: Verso Press. - cited in agreement.