Chamiyah - Chapter 6

Racism Without Racists Chapter 6

Are all Whites refined Archie Bunkers?

Most whites in the United States rely on the ideology of the color-blind racism to articulate their view and interpret interactions with people of color. And because whites believe discrimination is a thing of the past, minorities’ protestations about being racially profiled, experiencing discrimination in the housing and labor markets, and being discriminated against in restaurants, stores, and other social settings are interpreted as excuses. Does this mean that all whites are refine Archie Bunkers? Does every single white subscribe to the frames, racial stories, and style associated with color-blind racism? Obviously not. Racial has always transpired because of the joint efforts of racial minorities and white progressive.

Interview data from the 1997 Survey on Social Attitudes of College Students and the 1998 Detroit Area Study suggest young, working-class women are the most likely candidates to be racial progressive. These opinion-shaping agents also propagate the view the most whites, whom they classify as ‘middle class,’ are racially tolerant. Systems of privilege are defended by most of their beneficiaries in a variety of ways.

In this chapter Bonilla-Silva profiled white racial progressives. Bonilla-Silva found that young, working-class women are more likely than any other segment of the white community to be racially progressive. They were more likely to support affirmative action and interracial marriage and understand discrimination is a central factor shaping the life chances of minorities in this country. Most also admitted that being white is an advantage in this country. Although these respondents were substantially different in their views from most whites in these two studies, many of their views denoted the influence of color-blind racism. All these respondents, though to various degrees, have been influenced by the grames of color blindness and, hence, on some issues had exactly the same views as most whites probably children of interracial couples would face.

Aderonke - Chapter 5 Racism without Racists

In Chapter five of Racism without Racists, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva talks about the level of residential segregation and personal associations whites and blacks. He also talks about how whites explain their social segregation in the society. For most of the people interviewed in this book, isolation begins as a kid in school with people they interact with and it’s continues to college and work place. He defines this phenomenon as “white habitus” a racialized, uninterrupted socialization process that conditions and create whites’ taste, perception, feelings, and emotion and their views on racial matter. (Silva, page 104)

Silva uses surveys to show how whites will rather socialize with their own kind than others of different color or social background, claiming that they never had the opportunity to meet one, or live with them. Even whites who live in mixed neighborhood, he explains still do not interact with people of other colors. Whites in this interviews claim to have black friends, but after Silva reviews the interview, he realizes that it appears that they were just acquaintances and never good friends. For example, Emily one of the interviewees has a roommate who is black and she said they go shopping sometimes. Then she contradicts herself by saying “it’s not like am really good friends with them, but we do stuff together” (Silva page 111) so she doesn’t consider black girls as friend.

Many whites do not see segregation as a social problem; they believe it is a normal way of life for people of the same color to live together. They explain this by saying it is because they are comfortable with them. During the interview, some whites reversed the situation by saying that blacks are hard to approach and that they segregate themselves and that they do not want to socialize with whites. They use this as an excuse of not having black friends.

Lastly, the interviewer asks about interracial marriage. Some interviewees claim that they allow it, but still find excuses to oppose interracial marriage. For example, Sally, an MU student said she approves, but she is concerned about the kids and how they will have to deal with other kids and not be accepted by their community.

In conclusion, Silva’s studies shows that since a status differences between blacks and whites exist, white develop a “groupthink” norms and values that simplified their differences. So when blacks distant themselves from whites, whites believe more negatives believe about them. For example “blacks are lazy”. Despite the centuries we are in white led a segregated life and Silva understands that has attitudinal, emotional, and political implications. (Silva page125)

Nicole - Racism without Racists Chapter 1

The author gives an overview, a brief intro of what the entire book is going to be about. He says whites denounce blacks “for demanding the maintenance of unnecessary and divisive race-based programs, such as affirmative action. His argument is blacks and dark-skinned minorities lad well behind in almost every area of social life. Society is set up where minorities don’t succeed, from education to housing, “minorities are at the bottom of the well”.

Color-blind racism is a kind of racism that says, “These people are human too”. The fact a certain race is behind is because they do not work hard enough. Today it serves as the ideological armour for a covert and institutionalized system toward minorities. Whites can express resentment toward minorities, critize their morals, and what they believe in, work ethic, then claim “reverse racism”.

Whites and people of color cannot agree on racial matters because they look at race differently. For people of color think of racism as a system or institution and whites view racism as prejudice. There are three variations on scientists’ view on racism: Socially constructed academic achievement, and social categories.

The author goes on to explain the dominant race. He uses data sources and interviews to achieve his goal in describing the main components of color blind racism and explain their functions.

The Style of Color Blindness by Kyle Lindemann

That chapter of this book was interesting. It gave five examples of the most common styles used in conversation to avoid sounding racist. At first I was confused as to what this meant but as I continued reading it enlightened me to things I noticed in conversation everyday. The five main methods are as follows;

Avoidance: pretty self-explanatory avoiding any sort of racial oriented views or ideas during conversations.
Semantic moves: I’m not sure if this is correct but what I gathered was something like small bumpers or cushions before dropping the racially bent phrase.
Voice Projections: Dramatic change in tone or manner when talking about race related issues.
Diminutives: I didn’t know what that meant and I looked it up and the definition is as follows "a very small person or thing" So when stated small colorblind race talk I'm assuming he means like small racial slurs or stereo types in conversations.
Incoherence: when individuals are confronting with racial topics or issues they become completely dumbfounded and confused.

A scientist conducted a study with MU students and DAS respondents asking various questions concerning opposite race and documented the various responses breaking down what certain phrases in conversation would mean.

For example: the conductor would ask what races are your friends or who you hang out with and within a simple response the student would use racial slurs unknowingly or seemingly out of her time period as the book states like "colored people" or "Negros" this of course was not common for every response but came up on occasion. Another interesting fact would be how students would use buffers like "I'm not racist, but...." to justify the negative comment about to be made. Many students claim not to say racist things but then came out and openly admitted to telling racist jokes to their peers in non-public settings. Many other things noted by the doctor was the "I'm not black so I don’t know" act. And simply by using that phrase could claim ignorance on any and all racial topics and "unknowingly” say something that may be inappropriate without any negative repercussions because they didn’t know any better. My overall favorite idea of avoiding racial tensions in conversation is the "anything but race approach" and the "They are the racist ones." In anything but race people tend to avoid to social issue like interface marriages and put the pressure on what would the children think or feel when they grow up. Attempting to avoid the main answer as to why they disagree with interracial marriages. Finally the attempt at explain how they are the racist ones by demanding affirmative action, compensation for slavery, and "isolate" themselves from others out side of their racial group, is solely the opinion of the speaker and in turn ends up making the sound racist regardless.

Racism without Racists by Alaynna

"I Didn't Get That Job Because of a Black Man" deals with the subject of
color-blind racism's, and one of the most effect color-blind racism's is
storytelling.Storytelling plays a large part of communication. Through stories
people are able to present themselves, and to persuade the audience that "we"
are right. Stories are a normal part of social life, they are the central
component of color-blind racism. Modern racial stories are deleved into by
college students and DAS respondents. Their responses are put into two different
categories of stories; story lines and testimonies. Story line is defined  as
the socially shared tales that are fable-like and incorporate a common scheme
and wording. Racial stories are normally classified as story lines they are
the ideological. Testimonies, on the contray, are  accounts in which the
narrotor is a central participant in the story or is close to the characters in
the storry.  Only "fist hand" narratives are considered as testimonies.

The four stories analyzed was, "The past is the past," " I did not own
slaves," "If Jews, Italians, and Irish Have Made It, How Come Blacks have Not?"
and "I did not get a job because of a black man". All of these storylines help
"whites" to solidify their view points about African American, "blacks." If
"whites" were to take afirmative action they could insert "The past is the past"
or "I did not own slaves" to argue their view points."If Jews, Italians, and
Irish Have Made It, How Come Blacks have Not?" story line explains "blacks"
position in America. The story line " I did not get that job because of a black
man" seems more like an testimony. This story line is based on truth and
facts.

Testimonies are often used as rhetorical staements in interviews;
respondents not the interviewer tend to use them. The author organized
testimonies into three categories,namely, stories of interactions with "blacks";
good and bad, stories of disclosure of somone close who is racist, and other
stories. Testimonies of positive interactions with "blacks" are used for
self-presentational purposes. Stories from negative perspectives with "blacks"
are used to give negative views about "blacks."

Even though story lines are social products, the media reinforces
them. "Bad" behavior by "blacks and latino's" are prsented as normal, whereas
the same behavior presented by "whites"  are not. The media uses racial stories
created by the people and make them into things they are not.

I, Rigoberta Menchu Ch 24-end

These chapters begin with Rigoberta talking about the horrible ways in which her family members and compeñeros were tortured and killed by the Guatemalan landowners and soldiers. She first speaks of the horrors of her younger brother’s torture and death. The army captured him and accused him of being a communist. They kept him on the brink of death for days, torturing him in the most gruesome ways imaginable. Then, the families and community members of those who were being held captive and tortured were forced to come and watch them being further tortured and then burned alive. Her brother was just the first of her family members to be tortured and killed. Her father was killed with many others who were burned to death during their occupation of the Spanish embassy as an attempt to get the government to pay attention to their struggle. Additionally, her mother was kidnapped, raped, tortured, and left to suffer and die by the army for her work in organizing and leading the fight.
Throughout all of this, Rigoberta emphasizes the importance to the Indians of continuing to fight for their cause and lives even when others are killed doing so. She says that as long as the community can remain strong and organized, they still have hope.
Rigoberta also speaks about being a woman throughout all of these struggles. She talks about the differences between Indian and ladino women and the things her mother taught her about how to fulfill the role of a woman in the Indian community. She says that she has decided not to be married and have children, even though it is of great importance in the Indian community, in favor of making a commitment to her people’s political struggle.
She became a leader of the CUC and helped organize a strike of agricultural workers. This lead to the army bombing and setting fire to many communities and villages and an escalation of the struggle. Rigoberta became a woman being hunted by the army. She felt as though no place was safe for her to hide and was always on the run from the government. Eventually, it got to the point where she was forced to leave the country and managed to get out safe. She continued to get people behind the cause and to do work both from other countries and in Guatemala when the situation became safer.

I, Rigoberta Menchu: Chapters 15-23

These chapters cover many of the harsh conditions that Rigoberta and her people were forced to deal with and what they did in response to them. It begins by telling the great struggles that her father went through. Since her father is considered to be a father figure in her village, he felt that the safety and the future of the village rested in his hands. This was a responsibility that he took very seriously. He had many confrontations with Spanish landowners that tried to take their land away. He was constantly traveling and fighting in order to get it so that they could keep their land. He was captured once and beaten until he was near death. The people were forced out of their village several times, by soldiers, and their belongings were always destroyed when this happened. At one point, they signed a contract with the landowners believing that it meant that they would get their land and finally be left alone; but this was a trick because it only gave them their land for two years before they would be bothered again.
They spent a lot of their time learning how to defend themselves from attacks by the soldiers. They employed a variety of tactics including throwing stones, hot water and setting up traps that they had previously used for animals trying to eat their crops. They planned escape routes into the mountains incase of a sudden attack on the village which had to be used on several occasions. Several of the women in the village were raped by the soldiers and a few of them became pregnant with their children. They felt that these children were evil and could not bear to carry them because they had the soldiers’ evil blood in them. A friend of Rigoberta was brutally killed with a machete because she would not have sex with the son of the owner of a finca.
They believed in the Bible as a great source of guidance for how they should conduct themselves. They managed to get a few guns and grenades but did not know how to use them. They also could not ask anyone how since none of them could properly speak Spanish. It was during this time that Rigoberta decides to start learning Spanish from the nuns and teaching it to young children in the community in order to teach them and empower them.

I, Rigoberta Menchu chapters 8-14

In reading the book I, Rigoberta Menchu, I was struck by the immediate cultural differences between us. I felt very much taken outside of my normal comfort zones and forced to look at situations from a point of view I have rarely considered. Rigoberta grew up with many more spiritually significant rituals than I did, beginning with the ceremony that took place when Rigoberta turned ten. She was explained that now she was to become a woman, and that soon it would be her responsibility to have children. This struck me as very different because in our society a ten year old girl would not certainly not be burdened with this type of responsibility, even hearing of sexual acts would be cause for uproar in our society. Furthermore, she was told that she would be expected to perform more duties as a responsible member of her community, and in return she did some of her father’s duties. In American society a ten year old girl is still seen as a child, and her responsibilities are slim to none.
When Rigoberta describes buying food and supplies at the market it is very different from what we are used to as Americans living in a large city. She describes that the trip to the market is a full days walk, and that people only go when is absolutely necessary, and only purchase what is absolutely necessary, such as food and soap. Many times one person from the village would go to the market and get supplies for the whole village. When we think about living in Chicago, we must realize that all the things we need to survive are available within relatively short transportation periods. Between the busses, trains, taxis, bycicles and other personal means of transportation, it would be unheard of in our area to go for such long stretches of time without a trip to the market (in our case, a mall or supermarket), and when we do go to only buy that which is necessary for survival.
I was struck when Rigoberta describes her job as a maid for a rich family. She talks about being treated like less than the dog, being given less to eat than the dog, and looked at as a filthy commodity not worthy of any respect. When she talked about how her father came to visit, poor and dirty, and how the family would not let him in the house, I was appalled. It is shocking to think that we can so easily overlook the beauty of a culture we are unfamiliar with and treat them so poorly when things such as customs and language form a gap between societies.