Is the Emphasis on a Color-Blind Society an Answer to Racism

Racism is a word that sparks a nerve in many individuals today. As hard as it is to believe, racism is still a big factor in what we as a society know as a unified America. Although, it is not as obvious as it was in the past, it still goes on, just in ways that are less noticeable. We ask the question, is the emphasis on a color-blind society an answer to racism. Ward Connerly claims it is a way to stop the segregation and make America a whole as it has been striving to be for the longest. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva believes color-blind racism is the new racial ideology and still brings about racial inequality. As the solution to the question progresses, we ask ourselves, will a color-blind society change the way whites view blacks and minorities? Will it change the discrimination that is brought about everyday from individualistic opinions? Those that say they are not biased against other races are the main ones that are judgmental to how certain ethnicities act. Regardless of a color-blind society, there is still going to be racial inequality. Color-blind racism is basically racism that acts as if color doesn’t matter, when in actuality, it really does. Whites believe that if they use color-blind racism, they aren’t racist. They bypass the word â€Å"black† and use other words to substitute it for. They bypass the word â€Å"race† and instead use words such as â€Å"ethnicity,† â€Å"culture† or â€Å"background† to make their statements not sound so harsh. Despite the fact that they believe they may not sound prejudiced at the time that does not stop them from thinking it. As Eduardo Bonilla-Silva believes, color-blind racism may not be as crude as the Jim Crow era, but it resembles it in a more minor way. For example, whites will vote for a black man for President of the United States, but they still look down on the black society, most likely hoping that the â€Å"black President† will help those stereotypes. Ward Connerly attended the American River Junior College and earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in political science with honors at Sacramento State College. He is the founder of the American Civil Rights Institute and an outspoken supporter of equal opportunities for all Americans. He expressed his views on racism by discussing an encounter he had with a woman. While explaining his desire to succeed at having a color-blind government, the woman commented by replying what he was doing was going to be best for his people. Although, she may not have realized her remark offended him, situations similar to that occur all the time especially with blacks and minorities. Persons may do it without the intention to insult, but that just proves that everyone is viewed more so by color than by characteristics and personality. Many minorities will always be judged by their color because whites believe that they will never have higher power. Even though Ward Connerly went through rough obstacles growing up involving race, rather than focusing on the bad experiences he had, he claimed that if you â€Å"take people at face value and give them an opportunity, race is irrelevant. † He supports the emphasis on a color-blind society so people won’t use discrimination based on the color of one’s skin. He used examples such as classifications and how there was no need to classify people by race. After the Civil War, with having separation for bathrooms, poll taxes and water fountains, distinguishing differences between people should have been stopped. He decided to place the Racial Privacy Initiative in California, to prevent governments from categorizing individuals by race, color, ethnicity and origin. That may help to some degree, but there’s still going to be physical appearances by all people and no one is going to worry about classifications, because whites are still going to have their assumptions about blacks, even if they don’t completely say so. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva received his Ph. D. from the University of Wisconsin. He has authored two books called White Supremacy and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era and Racism without Racists. He currently teaches sociology at Duke University focusing on race relations. Professor Bonilla-Silva proved his points with adequate examples shown in daily life. He uses the theory that blacks and most minorities are â€Å"at the bottom of the well. † He brought up that steering highly successful and educated blacks towards the poor, less paying jobs in the worst conditions are ways to keep minorities away from the upscale white society. According to Bonilla-Silva, the U. S. has scarcely moved beyond the era of segregation. He argues that all whites today rely more on cultural rather than biological analogies to explain blacks’ position in this country. I concur with his support because he has more supporting evidence than Connerly. Based on his interpretations, I’ve come to the conclusion that whites do come up with explanations to prove that they are so-called non-racial but as Bonilla-Silva said, â€Å"regardless of whites’ sincere fictions, racial consideration shade almost everything in America and black and dark skinned minorities lag behind in every area of social life. † An emphasis on a color-blind society is not the answer to racism. It’s just an excuse for whites to say that racism is not part of everyday life; that it simply just doesn’t exist. Ward Connerly had good claims, but his evidence did not support his conclusion enough to make me feel this topic would change the state of race in the U. S. Him describing his encounter made me feel that racism was never going to cease or for that matter, get better. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva brought out great support. By reviewing his examples and opinions, it is true that color-blindness is a front. Most whites will always have animosity towards those that don’t â€Å"resemble them. † Both authors did focus on the matter of race and how it is seen in the country. Race is seen differently throughout all individuals. Some find it just a word that has no meaning and is only involved with the past, but others find it an exaggeration of the word hatred. A word that brings out the worst in people’s personalities. Regardless of how much emphasis is even involved in having a color-blind society, racism still and always will exist.