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.