In Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s “Racism without Racism” he introduces the concept of colorblind ideology and it’s affect on the post civil-rights era. While the racial climate in the United States has significantly improved since the Jim Crow era, Bonilla-Silva argues that colorblind racism has “rationalize minorities’ contemporary status as the product of market dynamics, naturally occurring phenomena, and blacks’ imputed cultural limitations” (Bonilla-Silva 2003: 2). In other words, the colorblind ideology allows for whites to covertly institutionalize minorities without having to clearly identify whose it subjects are, unlike the Jim Crow era. This allows for whites to use colorblind racism as a shield to deem discrete discrimination towards minorities as allowable. Some examples of this include directing minorities and whites into different neighborhoods and steering favorably qualified people of color to jobs that have limited potential to be promoted (Bonilla-Silva 2003: 3). On top of this, Bonilla-Silva compares colorblind racism to laissez-faire racism in that both blame blacks themselves for their lower economic standing, seeing it as the function of perceived cultural inferiority (Bonilla-Silva 2003: 7). Ultimately, a colorblind society defends and allows for the …show more content…
Throughout this course we have learned that there are many institutionalized practices that restrict those from the lower class to attain a higher education. In order to obtain a well paying job, it is crucial in American society that one acquires a higher education. In Sheila Katz’ “Just Give Us a Chance to Get an Education” she uses the concept of intersectionality to show how legislative acts can actually endorse racial discrimination. In particular, she focuses on how the 1996 welfare “reform” restricts single women of color on welfare in obtaining a higher education. There were many changes made in the welfare reforms, however, one that had a large impact on the inequality in society was the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) policy shift to require welfare participants to engage in “work activities” as quickly as possible (Katz 2013: 275). From an outsider’s perspective this may seem like a good idea, however this concept significantly limits welfare recipients in obtaining a higher education. Due to the TANF legislation, the number of welfare participants enrolled in college plunged by half from 650,000 in 1996 to 358,000 in 1999 (Price 1999: 6). This welfare reform has become one of the very few policies in American society where seeking to obtain a higher education is discouraged,