Eduardo Bonillo Silva Reading

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva discusses many important ideas of why racism still exists in American society today. He casts light on many issues surrounding the myths that racism is a thing of the past and that denial of its existence is what fuels its flame. Silva questions members of the white minority to observe the style of the “now you see it now you don’t” mentality. This mentality displays the characteristics of the new racism known as color-blind racism that is commonly found in present-day American society. It is here where one will find the underlying issue regarding the justification of racial inequality (106).

After Silva’s interviews with the white minorities, who in this case were college students and DAS respondents, he found that there were four central frames that make up color blindness. Each of these frames has their own method of masking present-day racism. For example, “minimization of racism is a frame that suggests discrimination is no longer a central factor affecting minorities’ life chances” and that racism is “. . . better now than in the past.” Here we see a prime example of how white majorities use the comparison of the Jim Crow Era, where racism was very easy to see, to help rationalize the idea that racism is a vanishing issue.

The racism of the Jim Crow Era is a much simpler concept than that of the color blind type that we see today. Instead of labeling someone based on the color of their skin, whites are suppressing minority groups with the use of stereotypes. For example, Silva describes how “[m]any 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.” There are stereotypes for all members of society whether they are Latino, Black, White, Asian or Native American and this tendency to categorize groups based on their cultural differences is what leads to discrimination. Discrimination is what keeps segregation