A Critical Analysis Of Racism Without Racists By Bonilla-Silva

As I started to read Racism Without Racists I became increasingly more uncomfortable. Not because I did not like the book, but because I was afraid that I would recognize Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s words in myself. That I would have to see the ways in which my white privilege has caused me to spin my words to make myself appear less racist, or somehow pretend to be more marginalized than the minorities around me. I have to admit that when Bonilla-Silva said “I found that young, working-class women are more likely than any other segment of the white community to be racially progressive” (Bonilla-Silva 192), part of me breathed a sigh of relief. I am a young women from a working class family, I guess that means I am progressive right? While, I do see myself as a …show more content…
I have succumb to the world of color blindness, just like all the other college students interviewed in this book, and while that is a hard pill to swallow, I would rather face it than be stuck in the dark forever. The piece of this book that spoke to me the most, and felt to relate to the thesis in the most direct and interesting way was chapter 4, The Style Of Color Blindness. In this chapter Bonilla-Silva outlines the strategies whites use to maintain color blind racism. From the “some of my best friends are minorities” argument, all the way to projecting racism onto minorities, claiming that it’s black people who choose to live together, so how can we stop segregation? These arguments allow whites to live in a world where race doesn 't matter, while ignoring the discrimination that they are a part of creating. Stating that they don’t mind interracial marriage, but worry about the children. Or don’t want to see themselves or someone they love hurt by affirmative action. Or using words such as “colored” to describe African Americans even though that word has long since gone out of