By Tanya Maria Golash-Boza
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People in the United States do not usually
think deeply about how whiteness is an idea
that shapes many things and also can shift
among categories of people
One area where whiteness has been
important is in immigration and citizenship,
as people labeled as white were provided
many privileges in terms of immigration and
citizenship.
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Racial ideologies keep the idea of race alive.
The idea of systemic racism means that racism
has always been present in the United States
since its formation and that major institutions
and their policies continue to reproduce racist
actions through ideologies and their everyday
routines.
To understand racial ideologies, we must define
race, racism, and ideology.
“1) that the people of the world can be divided
into distinct groups, based on their appearance
and genetic characteristics, and (2) that these
groups share moral and cultural attributes.”
(p. 66)
“Racism encompasses both racial prejudice, the
belief that people belong to distinct races and
that these racial groups have innate
hierarchical differences that can be measured
and judged; and racial discrimination, the
practice of treating people differently on the
basis of their race.” (p.66)
Ideologies are a group of ideas on a topic of
social importance held in common by a group
of people rather than just a simple belief of an
individual.
Has twin components:
1. Asserts that racial groups exist.
2. Openly and in hidden ways constructs
justifications for why and how one racial
group deserves to benefit over all others.
1. Shooting of Trayvon Martin
2.Deportation of Mexican Americans
3. Japanese Internment
4. Tuskegee Syphilis experiment
During World War II, Japanese
families, such as the Mochida
family, were ordered to evacuate
their homes and were placed in
internment camps.
p. 71: Copyright Bettmann/Corbis/AP Images
During the Tuskegee syphilis
experiment, black men were
diagnosed with syphilis yet were
neither treated for it nor told
they had it.
p. 73: Courtesy of the National Archives at Atlanta
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Ideologies change across time, beginning in
the colonial period and moving into the
present.
Scholars categorize these changes of racial
ideologies as biological racism, cultural
racism, and color-blind racism.
The New Racism
Figure 3-1.
Percentage of Students Who Attended Schools That Were
Over 90 Percent Non-White in 2006–2007
Source: Orfield (2009).
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This belief system asserts and acts upon the
idea that whites are superior based on their
better genetic makeup.
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This ideology asserts that whites are superior
because they practice better cultural habits as
a group.
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This argues that all people should be treated
the same despite the color of their skin.
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This ideology draws on a few strategies that work
through rhetoric:
◦ Minimization of racism—a racist deed is explained away using
a different explanation than racist intent.
◦ Naturalization—an act of racism that is explained as just the
way it is or with the idea that there will always be inequality.
◦ Abstract Liberalism—using freedom of the individual to excuse
inequality with the explanation that people choose to be in the
situations that they are in
◦ Cultural Racism—blaming victims of racism for their own
situation because of the habits of living they are characterized
with
Hidden racism rather than outright
discrimination can be one way that racism
continues. “[A] racial ideology that upholds the
superiority of whites and ensures that whites
have access to the best resources persists.”
(p. 89)
The New Politics of Race
The election of Barack
Obama, the son of a
Kenyan immigrant, to the
presidency was a historic
moment.
p. 86: White House Photo
Racism and how it manifests utilizes old
forms and takes new forms.
 Some forms of racism include:
Biological Racism
Cultural Racism
Color-Blind Universalism
Color-Blind Racism
-What are situations in which you see these
form of racism at work?
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