This past February, the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Arizona State University celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day by throwing a party dubbed as the “MLK Black Party.” Attendees dressed as they believed a stereotypical black male would: basketball jerseys, baggy basketball shorts, and snapbacks. They also made watermelon cups, and posed for pictures while throwing up gang signs. Some partygoers posted group photos on Instagram, using hashtags such as #myboymartin, #blackoutformlk, and #ihaveadream. (The Huffington Post, January 2014) Tau Kappa Epsilon’s paradoxical “MLK Black Party” exemplifies that racism, although it has in some ways changed form, persists extensively today. To begin, some manifestations of racism have not changed
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As Bonilla-Silva termed in his book Racism without Racists: Colorblind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States (Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, 2003), racism today is known as color-blind, or new, racism. According to Bonilla-Silva, this racism perpetuates without racists; whites rationalize that the lower status of minorities is a product of their own limitations and a natural societal phenomenon, rather than as a result of white privilege. When racism takes this shape, whites can claim that they aren 't racist, and that minorities’ problems are their own fault. An extremely important subset of this new racism is cultural racism. Cultural racism “relies on culturally based arguments” (Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, 2003) and ideas to defend the racial status quo. Bonilla-Silva includes an interview with a white college female, in which she agrees with the premise that “the status of blacks in this country [is] a result of blacks lacking motivation”. This untrue and prejudicial generalization about blacks isn’t considered racism, but rather just the unavoidable truth by many whites. The “Black Out” party attendees expressed their stereotypical beliefs about blacks very clearly via their dress and demeanor at the party. The Tau Kappa Epsilon party provides a callous example of the cultural framework of racism in action. The fraternity members and guests relied on their cultural ideas – that all blacks are gang members or that all blacks love watermelon – to represent an entire race and
As Bonilla-Silva termed in his book Racism without Racists: Colorblind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States (Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, 2003), racism today is known as color-blind, or new, racism. According to Bonilla-Silva, this racism perpetuates without racists; whites rationalize that the lower status of minorities is a product of their own limitations and a natural societal phenomenon, rather than as a result of white privilege. When racism takes this shape, whites can claim that they aren 't racist, and that minorities’ problems are their own fault. An extremely important subset of this new racism is cultural racism. Cultural racism “relies on culturally based arguments” (Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, 2003) and ideas to defend the racial status quo. Bonilla-Silva includes an interview with a white college female, in which she agrees with the premise that “the status of blacks in this country [is] a result of blacks lacking motivation”. This untrue and prejudicial generalization about blacks isn’t considered racism, but rather just the unavoidable truth by many whites. The “Black Out” party attendees expressed their stereotypical beliefs about blacks very clearly via their dress and demeanor at the party. The Tau Kappa Epsilon party provides a callous example of the cultural framework of racism in action. The fraternity members and guests relied on their cultural ideas – that all blacks are gang members or that all blacks love watermelon – to represent an entire race and