"If Only We Could Return to the Pre-Trump Era" PDF

ESSAY 7 “If Only We Could Return to the Pre-Trump Era” Nostalgia and Color-Blind Racism Ted Thornhill Florida Gulf Coast University O ver the past several decades, most White Americans have strongly held that race no longer matters and that in the United States anyone can get ahead if they work hard...

ESSAY 7 “If Only We Could Return to the Pre-Trump Era” Nostalgia and Color-Blind Racism Ted Thornhill Florida Gulf Coast University O ver the past several decades, most White Americans have strongly held that race no longer matters and that in the United States anyone can get ahead if they work hard enough (Bonilla-Silva, 2018; Gallagher, 2012; see also Ioanide in this volume). This is one of the hallmarks of the color-blind perspective. In sociological terms, color blindness actually has two meanings—one prescriptive, the other descriptive. The former suggests that it is both possible and preferable to think and act toward others without acknowledging skin color. The latter, sometimes called post-racialism, refers to the belief that race no longer determines individuals’ life chances in contemporary U.S. society (Gallagher, 2012). Most Whites have internalized both of these meanings, allowing them to rest secure in the racial status quo, comforted by their postracial delusion. Gallagher (2012) explains it the following way, The rosy picture that colorblindness presumes about race relations and the satisfying sense that one is part of a period in American history that is morally superior to the racist days of the past is, quite simply, a less stressful and more pleasurable social place for whites to inhabit. (p. 93) The notion of a color-blind society may seem absurd to some readers given the racist demagoguery and policies of the 45th president, and his acolytes’ enthusiastic embrace of most, if not all, of both. Yet, despite a notable but temporary increase in Whites’ support for the Black Lives Matter movement in the weeks following the brutal torture and execution of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers, and a related increase in their acknowledgment of systemic racism, color-blind ideology remains the dominant White American understanding of racial matters. Indeed, for most Whites, it remains those who would notice race and invoke it publicly (e.g., in policy discussions, classrooms, courtrooms, or the media) who are the real obstacles to a racially harmonious, color-blind society. This sentiment is frequently expressed in statements such as, “If people stopped talking about race, it wouldn’t be a problem anymore.” Explaining Color-Blind Ideology During the civil rights movement, activists often invoked the idea of a colorblind society—a sentiment embodied most strongly by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s (1963) “I Have a Dream” speech, in which he envisioned a day 87 where individuals “[would] not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” This phrase has since been decontextualized and co-opted by political conservatives to proselytize a rendering of post– civil rights America that is inconsistent with reality. These individuals, and a nontrivial number of liberals, too, are steadfast in their mission to eliminate the very laws, programs, and policies meant to ensure that Americans of color would be fully incorporated into American society, unencumbered by the effects of historical White supremacy and its contemporary manifestations (Brown et al., 2003; Wise, 2010). Civil rights legislation has not eliminated the need for affirmative action policies that help offset the continued effects of state-sanctioned racial injustices of the past and contemporary forms of racism in the present, to say nothing of the country’s glaring failure to provide compensatory repair to former slaves and their descendants, which has ensured a chasmic wealth gap between Whites and Blacks. While the civil rights movement did not eliminate racial inequality, it did initiate a reshaping of the discourse around race. One positive benefit of this restructuring, at least prior to Donald Trump’s racist campaign and presidency, is that the use of explicitly racist language had been eliminated from most public forums, except for the Internet where many individuals have, since its inception, used social media and the (perceived) anonymity of online chat rooms and forums, blogs, and e-mail to use racist epithets, promote racial stereotypes, and advocate White supremacy (Daniels, 2009; Eschmann, 2020; Steinfeldt et al., 2010). Relatedly, research has even shown that search engines such as Google facilitate racism online through their search algorithms (Noble, 2018). Still, in most public forums, the discursive space around the topic of race is now dominated by the ideology of color blindness, or the desire to ignore race, though this was often expressed more caustically during the Trump era. Color blindness is buttressed by several key assumptions. First, within the color-blind racial project, racism is conflated with racial prejudice. This fails to recognize that racism is a structural phenomenon that is “variable” and often takes on a different character in different historical periods (BonillaSilva, 1996, p. 470). When coupled with the sacrosanct color-blind imperative of “no race talk,” it becomes impossible to address post–civil rights era racism and racial discrimination, which in the present is more often subtle, institutional, and at times even unintentional. The color-blind perspective demands a permanent gag order against opponents of racial injustice and White supremacy (Guinier & Torres, 2002). And in the flawed logic of color blindness, merely suggesting that White racial privilege and White-maintained systemic racism are real barriers to racial equality often results in the label of “racial rabble-rouser” for violating the color-blind imperative (see also Harris and McClure in this volume). This is problematic for several reasons, the most important of which is the fact that there are many institutional and organizational practices that produce negative and disparate outcomes by race, often without any overt racial animus or intent on the part of individual Whites. Under color-blind rhetoric, none of these issues can be addressed. Consider the seemingly benign practice of many organizations’ giving preference in hiring to the family members and friends of current employees. On the surface, this practice can appear entirely nonracial. However, most 88  Part II | Debunking Individual Attitudes BIPOC folks (Black people, Indigenous peoples, and other people of color) were barred from employment in nearly all historically White organizations through the better part of the 20th century. When coupled with the high level of racially endogamous marriages and peer groups among Whites, it is more likely than not that the family members and friends of White employees will be White. Advocating for the dismantling of these types of racially unequal arrangements and a willingness to critically examine contemporary social issues (e.g., the police killing of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, or the COVID-19 pandemic) from a race-conscious perspective. Another key assumption of color blindness is that the civil rights movement was largely successful in dismantling all significant barriers to upward social mobility for BIPOC groups. Here, the claim is regularly made that Brown v. Board of Education (1954), along with the landmark civil rights legislation of the 1960s, all but eliminated racial discrimination in education, housing, voting, and the labor market. As such, advocates of color blindness believe that racial discrimination in these areas occurs only on rare or infrequent occasions because the practice is illegal. King (1968) succinctly addressed this White fallacy in his final book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community, where he wrote, “The recording of the law in itself is treated as the reality of the reform” (p. 5). A half century since King penned these words, many Whites remain wedded to this position. However, it does not hold water, as there are federal and state laws and local ordinances that prohibit all sorts of other behaviors (e.g., murder, theft, pollution, speeding, tax evasion, breach of contract, driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol). Yet no one would claim that since we have laws and ordinances prohibiting these acts that they are not violated every day in the United States. Similarly, despite legal prohibitions against racial discrimination in areas such as housing, education, and employment, these laws are also violated every day in the United States. In 2020 alone, there were 22,064 employment-based racial discrimination complaints filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC, 2021). These complaints account for only a fraction of the actual number of violations, as most cases of racial discrimination in employment are likely to go unreported because most individuals are unaware that they have been victimized (Bendick et al., 1994). The claim that the modern civil rights movement eliminated racial discrimination or reduced it to the point of social insignificance is entirely inconsistent with the evidence. The color-blind racial project is in essence the 21st-century equivalent of the ideology of White supremacy that prevailed in the United States prior to the achievements of the modern civil rights era. Although the logic and presentation of these two belief systems are quite different, the effect remains the same: a racially unequal society where Whites are afforded greater life chances than Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color. It is important to note that the racially unequal status quo that is, in large measure, perpetuated by the ideology of color blindness is not only harmful to people of color; it adversely affects Whites, too. While a considerable body of research and writing has documented the numerous material and psychological benefits of White racial privilege (e.g., Jensen, 2005; Lipsitz, 1998; McIntosh, 2013), there are also costs associated with these unearned advantages. White racial privilege that is today buttressed by color-blind Essay 7 | “If Only We Could Return to the Pre-Trump Era”  89 thinking can have the effect of enveloping its beneficiaries in “a bubble of unreality” that prevents an accurate understanding of “the way the world really works” (Wise, 2008, p. 155). Wise further states that it can also produce emotional and psychological costs that result from benefiting unjustly from racial advantages that harm other human beings. This is particularly the case in an American society that pretends it is the quintessence of meritocracy in the world. There are also more tangible costs associated with White racial advantage. As Brown et al. (2003) claim, White Americans may win better jobs, better housing in better neighborhoods, a better shot at a high-quality education for their children. But they must also pay, and pay handsomely, for the prisons, police, mopping-up health care services, and other reactive measures predictably required by the maintenance of drastically unequal social conditions. (p. 249) In his memoir, White Like Me: Reflections on Race From a Privileged Son, antiracist author Tim Wise (2008) asserts, “Racism and white privilege are dangerous to us, even as they pay dividends—sort of like a precious gem that turns out to be toxic if held too close” (p. 148). More recently, in his widely praised book, Dying of Whiteness, physician and sociologist Jonathan Metzl (2019) highlights how White racial resentment (i.e., the belief and bitterness that the gains of BIPOC groups are unwarranted and come at Whites’ expense) is literally killing White people. Through in-depth interviews and an extensive analysis of mortality and other social and political data, Metzl (2019) shows that through their support for Republican policies such as “loosening gun laws, repealing the Affordable Care Act, [and] enacting massive tax cuts that largely benefited wealthy persons and corporations,” Whites are dying at elevated rates due to their intransigent commitment to Whiteness (p. 6). In essence, there are manifold ways the ideology of color blindness can have indirect negative effects for Whites. Yet the fact remains that BIPOC groups are inarguably those most adversely and directly affected by a society that has permitted the chimera of color blindness to become the popular understanding of race in America—that is, an understanding that race no longer matters. In the next section, I provide evidence that establishes Whites’ strong commitment to color-blind ideology. Systemic Racism, Color-Blind Thinking, and White Public Opinion Most White Americans remain on an ideological island, consistently espousing inaccurate and retrograde views about racial matters that are at odds with the everyday lived experience of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and Muslim Americans. For generations, this lived experience has been expressly communicated through the heart-wrenching and righteously indignant testimonies of BIPOC folks who fight to exist, learn, thrive, and love in defiance of the designs of Whiteness, the minds it captures, and the structures it 90  Part II | Debunking Individual Attitudes creates, supports, and defends. Furthermore, a great deal of empirical social science research has documented and explained these experiences, and journalists and essayists regularly communicate them to the public. In the age of 24-hour cable news, the Internet, and social media, it can strain credulity to imagine that in a nation as racially and ethnically diverse as the United States, that a significant percentage of White Americans are unaware that Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and Muslim people in this country encounter significantly greater obstacles to a socially equal and materially secure existence than do Whites. Yet, this is precisely what most Whites—and some confused people of color (more on them later)—would have us believe. It is important to keep these historical and social facts in mind as we consider Whites’ racial views during two adjacent though very different political periods in the United States: the first governed by the nation’s first Black president, Barack Obama, who served two terms in office by twice winning—in commanding fashion—the electoral college and the popular vote; the second governed by Donald Trump, a reality TV personality and businessman, whose political ascendance, and his narrow electoral college win, was tethered to his promotion of the debunked, racist birtherism conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, thereby making Obama ineligible to serve as president (Kelley-Romano & Carew, 2019). Below, I review Whites’ racial views during Obama’s second term followed by their views during the Trump era, revealing their remarkably durable, if modestly attenuated, collective adherence to color blindness. White Racial Views During Obama’s Second Term National surveys conducted in the years preceding or during Donald J. Trump’s demagogic 2015–2016 presidential campaign revealed that the vast majority of Whites believed that the United States was a color-blind or post-racial society. Indeed, a 2015 New York Times & CBS News (2015) poll found that 55% of Whites believed that Whites and Blacks have “about an equal chance of getting ahead in today’s society” (7% actually believe that Blacks have a competitive advantage). In 2014, a similar Gallup (2014) poll found that 74% of Whites believed that the Blacks living in their community “have as good a chance as Whites” in finding employment for which they are qualified. Whites were even more confident that Blacks received equal treatment in the areas of education (80%) and housing (85%). This helps explain why fully two thirds of Whites (66%) believed that those “who can’t get ahead in this country are mostly responsible for their own condition” (Pew Research Center, 2014). It also helps explain why nearly three quarters of Whites (73%) disagreed that “every possible effort to improve the position of Blacks and other minorities” should be made “even if it means giving them preferential treatment” (Pew Research Center, 2012). That most Whites oppose race-conscious policies as a means of redressing historical racial oppression is understandable, if not morally defensible, once we also consider that only 43% of Whites agreed that racism is a “big problem” (DiJulio et al., 2015). A significant number of these Whites agree that racism is a “big problem” precisely because they see themselves as a victim of it. Indeed, findings from the 2015 American Values Survey revealed a stunning 50% of Whites believe that “discrimination against Whites Essay 7 | “If Only We Could Return to the Pre-Trump Era”  91 has become as big a problem today as discrimination against Blacks and other minorities” (Public Religion Research Institute, 2015). Yes, you read that correctly. In 2015, roughly every other White American believed that Whites not only experience racism and racial discrimination but that it was occurring on a scale comparable to that experienced by Blacks and other Americans of color. Below, I highlight more recent surveys capturing Whites’ racial views during the Trump era when racism became increasingly public, prolific, arguably state-sanctioned, and widely protested against in order to show the durability of their color-blind thinking. White Racial Views During the Trump Era As suggested above, while the Trump administration ushered in a more overt type of racism than we witnessed during the Obama era, it was still one marked by color blindness. We have to look no further than the days following the murder of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers. A CBS News poll revealed that even in that brief moment of bipartisan, cross-racial condemnation of those responsible for the brutal killing of yet another unarmed Black man by law enforcement, 45% of Whites still believed that Whites and Blacks have “about an equal chance of getting ahead in today’s society” (De Pinto et al., 2020). It is important to note that White Republicans account for most of this 45%. And, although this number declined by 10 percentage points between 2015 and 2020, from 55% to 45%, respectively, two crucial pieces of information must be noted. First, as I will elaborate on more fully later in this essay, nearly half of Whites still subscribe to the fallacious belief that Whites and Blacks have a roughly equal opportunity to “get ahead in today’s society.” There is absolutely no credible empirical evidence that this is true. Second, this poll was taken literally days after the nation and the world watched the horrific 8-minute and 46-second video of four police officers torturing and executing George Floyd. Given the durability of Whites’ racial views, whether this 10-point shift will persist is questionable. Additional Trump-era Gallup polls continue to show Whites’ support for color-blind ideology. For instance, 62% of Whites continue to believe Blacks in their community have as good a chance as whites at finding employment (Brenan, 2020). This rose-colored perception of Black–White equality persists across institutions and can again be observed with respect to education (65%) and housing (67%), as was the case in 2014. Whites’ belief that Blacks and Whites are treated equally in the labor market, education, and housing has declined by 12, 15, and 18 percentage points over the past six years, respectively, thereby suggesting a greater acknowledgment of systemic racism. However, this interpretation must be tempered. Here’s why: The decline among Whites’ perceptions paralleled an almost identical decline among Blacks’ views, which suggests that Whites are making very little progress in appreciating how Blacks experience racial discrimination across social institutions. And, even this fractional change in Whites’ acknowledgment of the barriers Blacks face in the area of jobs, education, and housing only appeared in the polling data with the advent of Donald J. Trump’s overtly racist candidacy and presidency. Stated differently, it took a prolifically racist Trump presidency for a notable percentage of Whites 92  Part II | Debunking Individual Attitudes to begin to acknowledge that Blacks do not have the same life chances as Whites. This is disappointing, if not surprising. Additionally, more than half of Whites (54%) still believe “Blacks who can’t get ahead are mostly responsible for their own condition” (Pew Research Center, 2017). Further, approximately half of Whites (49%) continue to believe “discrimination against Whites has become as big a problem today as discrimination against Blacks and other minorities” (Public Religion Research Institute, 2019). This percentage has essentially remained unchanged since 2014. In-depth interviews and focus groups with Whites over the past 20 years further reflect this pattern. These studies show that most Whites strongly believe Americans of color have an “equal opportunity” to succeed and as such they should stop dwelling on race, “playing the race card,” and engaging in “self-defeating” behaviors (see, e.g., Bonilla-Silva, 2018; DiTomaso et al., 2003; Gallagher, 2012). As with the survey data, qualitative studies also reveal Whites’ belief that the pendulum of racial preference has swung so far in the opposite direction that Americans of color are now the beneficiaries of “reverse discrimination” or “reverse racism” against Whites (Bonilla-Silva, 2018; DiTomaso et al., 2003; see also Moore in this volume). This sentiment is captured in the following quote by one White interviewee: “I think we find it sometimes going in the other direction. We bend over backwards for the minorities and the person that suffers is the White person” (DiTomaso et al., 2003, p. 195). Many White liberals and moderates anxiously awaited Donald Trump’s exit from the White House in hopes that the country could return to “normal.” However, the end of Trump’s presidency cannot magically mark an end to systemic racism, nor will it engender an antiracist awakening among his millions of unwavering acolytes. Rather, the Biden–Harris administration still governs a systemically racist nation, albeit in a more publicly genteel fashion, which makes it all the more insidious as systemic racism will be more effectively buttressed by color-blind ideology without presidential amplification of White supremacy. Moreover, the fact that Vice President Harris is Black and Asian (and also the first woman vice president) only lends further credence to the idea that systemic racism has ended. Therefore, in light of the nation’s racial history, one should expect the intoxicating fragrance of color blindness to once again attract most Whites’ attention in post-Trump America. One need only consider how quickly White support for the Black Lives Matter movement declined in the weeks and months following the murder of George Floyd—from 60% in June 2020 to 45% in September 2020—to glimpse most Whites’ fragile or non-existent commitment to antiracist projects, particularly those led by and centered on Black and Indigenous liberation (Pew Research Center, 2020). Yes, as noted previously, conversations and awareness of systemic racism (at least an unimpressive, simplistic version) increased in the wake of the brutal torture and execution of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers. However, these fleeting increases were almost entirely attributable to shifts among liberals/Democrats. In part, this may be due to the largely symbolic changes that occurred in the months after the Floyd murder. For instance, the Mississippi State Legislature voted to retire their state flag, which bore the confederate battle emblem; the Washington NFL team finally disposed Essay 7 | “If Only We Could Return to the Pre-Trump Era”  93 of its racist mascot; and several municipalities enacted policing reforms. However, irrespective of the new Biden presidency, there is a social fact that must be fully understood: White Americans have a history of quickly growing tired during seminal moments when transformative, antiracist legislative and policy changes are possible. The Intractability of Color-Blind Racism Given these facts, it remains important to address color-blind racism, which those committed to racial justice will need to understand in order to be able to refute its harmful, racist illogic. While the ideology of overt White supremacy was amplified during the Trump presidency, the more sophisticated, subtle, and still dominant ideology of color blindness continues to operate in the service of White supremacy. For example, some locations where color-blind claims are commonly found are the comments sections of online news reports, social media, or blog posts. Even a cursory scanning of comments to articles or posts that address topics such as affirmative action, Indigenous sovereignty, immigration, police killing of unarmed Black men and women, and racial justice protests reveal a color-blind ideology. Although there is not a reliable way to discern the racial identity of these individuals, except for profile pictures and self-reports within the body of the text, the tenor of their comments suggests most are White. Consider the following example during the Obama era. In January 2012, a coalition of nonprofit organizations in Duluth, Minnesota, launched the Un-Fair Campaign, which was designed to promote awareness and initiate a conversation about White racial privilege and racism through the medium of roadside billboards. These billboards were intentionally provocative, with phrases such as “It’s hard to see racism when you’re White” written in bold letters on the faces of White women and men. The billboards sparked considerable controversy, locally and nationally. Opponents of the Un-Fair Campaign created a Facebook group in an effort to communicate their frustrations. Consider the following representative comment posted on the “STOP Racist Unfair Campaign” (2012) Facebook group wall: Racism is Racism no matter how you slice it, and this ad campaign is RACIST! We all see color, how we react to all the colors we see in the world is up to each individual!! I was always taught to treat others as I would like to be treated, last time I looked an individual’s color was not factored into what I was taught!!!!!! I will not apologize for being White and I would not ask anyone of color to apologize either!!! This post is indicative of the problem with color blindness; it assumes that we already inhabit a society where racial equality prevails. When White privilege and White racism are implicated as real barriers to racial equality, the tendency is for White Americans to summarily dismiss the well-established body of readily available evidence and respond with hollow claims of racism, particularly against Whites. Unfortunately, this practice is all too common. As mentioned earlier, broaching the topics of racial disparities between Whites and BIPOC people in areas such as wealth, education, jobs, 94  Part II | Debunking Individual Attitudes health care, and treatment by the criminal justice system is often cited as evidence of racism against Whites. A more visible example of racist color-blind nonsense was the Trump administration’s formal effort to prevent federal government employees and contractors from learning about the historical and contemporary racial reality of the United States. Following the summer of 2020’s historic and overwhelmingly peaceful racial justice protests demanding greater police accountability and the elimination of racist laws, policies, and practices across the nation’s institutions and organizations, the Trump administration issued a directive1 to all federal agencies and an executive order2 to end all diversity trainings that reference or draw on critical race theory or a consideration of White privilege or systemic racism. Consistent with the foregoing discussion of the role of the Internet in promoting color-blind ideology, this decision can be directly traced to a right-wing social media campaign that made its way to popular conservative media outlets, including Fox News. A similar example of color-blind absurdity is the largely White, conservative furor that ensued following publication of the New York Times Magazine’s The 1619 Project in August 2019, which was intended to mark “the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery.” The goal of The 1619 Project was “to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative” (Hannah-Jones, 2019). More than a year after publication of The 1619 Project, right-wing ire had not abated, especially when schools and districts across the country had begun integrating it into the curriculum. The 1619 Project had so inflamed White conservatives that Donald Trump announced his “1776 Commission” in October 2020, which was ultimately nothing more than a rehashing of the tired Eurocentric rendering of American history that most of the nation’s children are still subjected to in schools. On Donald Trump’s last full day in office, January 19, 2021, his staff released the 1776 Commission report on the White House website. Yes, on Martin Luther King Day. The report was widely criticized as sophomoric and propagandistic. On January 20, 2021, the American Historical Association (2021) released a statement—cosigned by 46 additional professional academic associations—condemning the 1776 Commission’s report as hastily prepared, devoid of intellectual seriousness, and containing ample “falsehoods, inaccuracies, omissions, and misleading statements.” Two days later on January 21, 2021, President Joe Biden dissolved the 1776 Commission on his first full day in office and removed its widely condemned, anti-Black report from the White House website. Demonstrating much anti-Blackness, by February 2021, at least three Republican state legislatures (in Arkansas, Iowa, and Mississippi) had introduced bills that would ban The 1619 Project, and by the summer of 2021, states were issuing bans on teaching critical race theory. This backlash, which seems largely driven by a resentment for telling the truth about the history of race and racism in the United States, is a part of color-blind racism’s insistence that talking about race is itself racist. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/M-20-34.pdf 1 https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-combating-race-sexstereotyping/ 2 Essay 7 | “If Only We Could Return to the Pre-Trump Era”  95 Insisting something is not true because you find it unpleasant is a logical fallacy associated with an appeal to emotion in place of facts. Given this, by now you may be wondering whether BIPOC folks also advocate color blindness. Some do, though not to the same extent as Whites. Sociologist Bonilla-Silva (2018) explains this phenomenon in the following way: An ideology is not dominant because it affects all actors in a social system in the same way and to the same degree. Instead, an ideology is dominant if most members (dominant and subordinate) of a social system must accommodate their views vis-à-vis that ideology. (p. 161; emphasis in original) In other words, since the ideology of color blindness is hegemonic, some Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Muslim, and Asian Americans will inevitably also be persuaded by its claims. This is evident in groups like “Hispanics for Trump” and prominent Black Republicans like Candace Owens and Ben Carson. “If We Could Only Return to the Pre-Trump Era”: The Nostalgia for Color-Blind Racism So what’s wrong with color blindness? It just means that you want to see people as human beings, not colors, right? Not exactly. The color-blind narrative omits crucial facts about how we arrived at the current racial reality in the first place. To begin with, the process of racialization is ignored. Racialization involves “creat[ing] difference where previously no phenotypical or biological difference existed” (Desmond & Emirbayer, 2010, p. 9). Europeans used certain physical features, most notably skin color, to classify non-Europeans as distinct “races,” brand them as genetically and culturally inferior, and justify various forms of oppression against them, such as genocide, slavery, theft, and apartheid (Feagin, 2020; Feagin & Ducey, 2018). What are now considered distinct racial groups (e.g., Black, White, Asian, Indigenous) are actually social constructions originating from Europeans’ desire to dominate those perceived as “other.” Race is not a biological reality that, with focused effort, can be ignored and rendered inconsequential, as the color-blind perspective suggests (see also Buffington in this volume). Instead, it is a social construct, contingent on history, politics, geography, and time. In reality, color blindness is a powerful example of what sociologists Michael Omi and Howard Winant (1994) have called a “racial project,” which they define as “simultaneously an interpretation, representation, or explanation of racial dynamics, and an effort to reorganize and redistribute resources along particular racial lines” (p. 56; emphasis in original). As such, racial conflict of the past did not simply evaporate with the passage of the landmark civil rights legislation of the mid-20th century; it merely adapted to a different period. The overarching goal of the civil rights movement was to abolish the overt, state-sanctioned apartheid system that severely limited the life chances of Blacks, and other Americans of color, throughout the 96  Part II | Debunking Individual Attitudes United States, particularly in the southern states. Civil rights activists also demanded that Americans of color be accorded the same rights, privileges, and opportunities as Whites based on their common humanity and citizenship. The first goal was accomplished; the second goal has been only partially fulfilled. In the next section, I provide evidence that shows that the color-blind perspective is, in a word, wrong. Race Still Matters: The Cases of Education and the Labor Market A concise review of how and where race continues to shape individuals’ life chances would require a book-length treatment. However, a thorough repudiation of the myth of a color-blind society does not require such an exhaustive approach. Highlighting the falsity of this perspective requires only sufficient evidence that racism and racial discrimination remain regular and durable features of U.S. society. Research has shown that racial inequities continue to exist in areas such as education, the labor market, housing, politics, health and health care access, the criminal justice system, exposure to industrial toxins, retail experiences, and media depictions, to name but a few (see, e.g., Feagin, 2018; Feagin & McKinney, 2003; Feagin & Sikes, 1994). In this section, I show how race affects Americans’ experiences in the areas of education and the labor market. I focus on these two social areas because they are institutions with which nearly all Americans must interact fairly regularly throughout their lives and because the law explicitly prohibits racial discrimination in both of them. Race Matters in Education Americans view education as the principal means of upward social mobility, a central pillar of the “American dream.” In our “meritocratic” society, high academic achievement is supposed to grease the wheels of mobility and propel one toward occupational and financial success throughout life. This process tends to work marvelously for the average White student. Unfortunately, for many BIPOC students, it operates in a wholly different manner in large part because of the poor quality of the schools they attend. In the United States, most children and adolescents attend schools based on where they live. However, the ghettoization of Blacks, Latinxs, and Asians in cities and the forced relocation of Indigenous peoples to reservations across the United States have ensured that children of color do not receive equal schooling, both prior to Brown v. Board of Education (because separate is not equal) and up to the present day (because separate is still not equal). Yet, irrespective of discursive shifts in public rhetoric that have recently included greater acknowledgment of systemic racism, color-blind logic still prevails, as many pretend that Americans who find their children’s schools unsatisfactory always have the option of moving to another location with better schools; whether they decide to do so is entirely an individual decision. These types of statements ignore the overwhelming body of Essay 7 | “If Only We Could Return to the Pre-Trump Era”  97 evidence showing that racially segregated urban ghettos were intentionally created by Whites through practices such as redlining, blockbusting and panic selling, threats and violence, and restrictive covenants. Today, racial residential segregation is maintained and expanded (either contiguously or non-contiguously) through such illegal practices as racially discriminatory lending and racial steering on the part of real estate agents, as well as freedom of choice [read: White flight] (Lewis et al., 2011; Massey & Denton, 1993; Zubrinsky Charles, 2003). Where one lives matters for a variety of reasons, including the availability of jobs, exposure to pollution (water, air, soil, noise), violent victimization, the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables, and most especially, the quality of schools that one’s children will attend (McKoy & Vincent, 2008). Due to the legacy of forced racial residential segregation, students of color, particularly Black and Latinx students, are more likely than White students to attend inferior racially segregated schools, for example, with less qualified teachers and limited gifted, honors, and advanced placement classes (Kozol, 1991, 2005). This is partially due to social class differences by race. Yet the social class advantage held by Whites is itself a product of White racism, both past and present (Feagin, 2020). Even when students of color, especially Blacks, attend diverse schools, they are still more likely than White students to be “tracked low,” independent of their abilities and aspirations and their parents’ preferences (Diamond, 2006; Tyson, 2011). That is, they are disproportionately placed in developmental courses, dropout prevention, and vocational programs. Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Muslim, and Asian American students also routinely experience explicit and implicit racism on the part of some White teachers and students, which creates a significant disruption in their learning (see, e.g., Kailin, 1999; Kohli, 2008). Examples of implicit racism include teachers and administrators subscribing to negative racial stereotypes about Black students’ having poor moral character and disliking academic pursuits. More overt forms of racism would include racially coded or not-so-veiled comments such as, “Come on, Calvin (who is Black), you should know the answer to this question about slavery” or “Kim (who is Chinese American), how did your grandparents feel about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II?” These types of statements and questions may come from teachers, administrators, coaches, or students. And at the intersection of both explicit and implicit racism lies the well-documented lower expectations of many White teachers for Black and Latinx students relative to White students (Landsman, 2004; Roscigno & Ainsworth-Darnell, 1999). At this point, some may argue that students of color could overcome these barriers to academic excellence through hard work. Indeed, some of them do. However, pointing to examples of “motivated minorities” who attend poor schools, graduate at the top of their respective classes, and earn scholarships to prestigious colleges and universities as evidence of what is possible is disingenuous. The “homeless to Harvard” and “jail to Yale” stories that appear in the popular media at seemingly regular intervals are extremely rare exceptions and, by definition, are far outside the norm. Further, given the differences in the educational experiences of White students and students of color, it would be unrealistic to expect both groups to have comparable educational outcomes even if they worked equally hard, to say nothing 98  Part II | Debunking Individual Attitudes of the social class advantages of White students. This begs the question: Why should a herculean effort be required of students of color to compensate for all the educational inequities they experience? This doesn’t comport with the widespread perception of education as “the great equalizer” or the claim of a color-blind society where race no longer has material consequences. Race Matters in the Labor Market Regarding the labor market, in terms of income, the U.S. Department of Labor (2016) reports Black and Latinx people consistently earn less than their White and most of their Asian American counterparts across all major occupational groups (e.g., management, professional, service, and sales). The per capita income among Latinx people (of any race) in 2019 was $22,002 compared with $42,106 among non-Latinx Whites. This represents a 91% advantage for non-Latinx Whites that has remained relatively unchanged since at least 2011. Black people fared only marginally better than Latinx people, earning a median income of only $24,509 in 2019. And this already significant income gap between Blacks and non-Latinx Whites has grown by almost $4,000 since 2011. Asian Americans earned a per capita income of $43,884 in 2019, marking the first time that their average income either met or exceed that of Whites, since at least 2012. Whereas some may view this finding as evidence of meaningful progress toward racial equality given the magnitude of the Black–White and Latinx– White income gaps, it actually masks considerable income variation that exists among Asian ethnic groups. For example, the per capita incomes of Japanese, Filipino, and Hmong Americans in 2019 were $51,999, $38,493, and $22,530, respectively (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020). Moreover, members of those Asian ethnic groups with both higher and lower per capita incomes still pay a “race tax,” as evidence reveals that they must be better educated and more experienced than their White counterparts to realize similar pay and promotion opportunities (Chou & Feagin, 2014; Woo, 2000). Unfortunately, Asian Americans’ burden of having to be more qualified than their White colleagues to realize equitable treatment in the workplace is widely ignored due to the invidious “model minority” myth (see Zhou and Tran in this volume). From education to the labor market, research has shown that even among vocational school graduates—that is, those for whom marketable skills are of the utmost importance—the stigma of non-White skin color presents itself as a significant barrier to gainful employment. An important study by Royster (2003) documented this phenomenon by following two groups—one Black and one White, similar in all relevant respects (i.e., motivation, grades, skill level, etc.)—of recent male graduates of a vocational school in Baltimore, Maryland, to assess their labor market experiences. She found that they had greatly disparate rates of success in the blue-collar labor market. The White graduates found more lucrative jobs in the areas in which they were trained and did so relatively quickly. The Black graduates did not have the extensive networks of the White graduates due to historical racial discrimination in the blue-collar labor market and the exclusionary policies of most craft unions. Royster also found that Blacks’ ability to develop these types of materially valuable social networks is stymied, in part, by the Essay 7 | “If Only We Could Return to the Pre-Trump Era”  99 fallacious belief among White employers that Whites are routinely facing “reverse discrimination” and that they are “underdogs” in the labor market. Therefore, White employers find it necessary to look out for fellow Whites struggling to find employment in what they perceive to be a political climate overly concerned with issues of diversity and affirmative action. Royster (2003) concludes that because older White men actively recruit and assist younger White men—even those who are not family members, to the virtual exclusion of young Black men—patterns that unfairly advantaged White men during the pre-civil rights era continue to do so now. (p. 177) Conclusion White people as well as and Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color have significantly different opportunities in nearly every sphere of life. Color blindness supports this racially unequal status quo, and most Whites, and some BIPOC folks, buy into this ideology to varying degrees. So how do we resolve this situation? Is there a viable alternative to color blindness? Thankfully, there is. Rather than a color-blind society, we need to strive for a society that is both racism-free and racially equitable. This first requires that we become race or color conscious. Wise (2010) has suggested “illuminated individualism” as a way toward racial equity. Here, we must first acknowledge that individual identities matter; we are not simply raceless, generic Americans. Next, we need to realize that we have different lived experiences and be reflexive about how race has shaped those experiences. Last, it is imperative that we remain cognizant of the influence of historical and contemporary racism on the life chances of BIPOC groups in the United States. In essence, we need to adopt both a sociological and a historical perspective. Without doing so, we can never hope to achieve a society where race does not determine individuals’ life chances. We can move forward together as Americans of all hues, but only after sincerely and completely addressing America’s racist past, committing to addressing racism in the present, and resolving to confront it in the future when, not if, it rears it unsightly head. Ted Thornhill received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Massachusetts– Amherst and is an associate professor of sociology and founding director of the Center for Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University. He teaches courses on racial stratification. His research and writing examine the ways in which race and racism operate in higher education and other organizational contexts. Thornhill’s research and teaching have been covered by numerous media outlets, including CNN, the Washington Post, the Root, BBC, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Forbes, and the Boston Globe. 100  Part II | Debunking Individual Attitudes SUGGESTED ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Bonilla-Silva, E. (2018). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in America (5th ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. Brown, M. K., Carnoy, M., Currie, E., Duster, T., Oppenheimer, D. B., Shultz, M. M., & Wellman, D. (2003). Whitewashing race: The myth of a colorblind society. University of California Press. Burke, M. (2019). Colorblind racism. Polity Press. Carbado, D. W., & Gulati, M. (2012). Acting White? Rethinking race in “post-racial” America. Oxford University Press. Feagin, J. R., & Ducey, K. (2018). Racist America: Roots, current realities, and future reparations (4th ed.). Routledge. Wise, T. (2010). Color-blind: The rise of post-racial politics and the retreat from racial equity. City Lights Books. Websites Racism Review: http://www.racismreview.com “Racism Review is intended to provide a credible and reliable source of information for journalists, students and members of the general public who are seeking solid evidencebased research and analysis of ‘race,’ racism, ethnicity, and immigration issues, especially as they undergird and shape U.S. society within a global setting. We also provide substantive research and analysis on local, national, and global resistance to racial and ethnic oppression, including the many types of antiracist activism.” Tim Wise: http://www.timwise.org This is the personal website of antiracist activist and author Tim Wise. Many of his essays are posted here, as well as interviews, speeches, and his speaking schedule. The Privilege Institute: https://www.theprivi legeinstitute.com/ “The Privilege Institute (TPI) was created as a nonprofit organization in early 2014 by Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr. TPI develops and sustains collaborations grounded in the essential ideals of the White Privilege Conference (WPC): Understanding, Respecting and Connecting. TPI offers multiple opportunities for advocates of peace, equity, and justice to enhance their work and research by providing challenging workshops, engaging speakers, and a range of educational opportunities and resources on issues of privilege, power, and leadership.” Audio/Visual Race: The Power of an Illusion (2003): This is a three-part PBS documentary. The executive producer Larry Adelman writes, “Our hope is that this series can help us all navigate through our myths and misconceptions, and scrutinize some of the assumptions we take for granted. In that sense, the real subject of the film is not so much race but the viewer, or more precisely, the notions about race we all hold.” The Great White Hoax: Donald Trump & The Politics of Race and Class in America (2018): “The Essay 7 | Great White Hoax, featuring acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores how American political leaders of both parties have been tapping into white anxiety, stoking white grievance, and scapegoating people of color for decades to divide and conquer working class voters and shore up political support. The film’s primary focus is Donald Trump’s race-baiting 2016 campaign for the presidency. But it also widens its scope to show how Trump’s charged rhetoric about African-Americans, Latinos, and Muslims fits within a longstanding historical “If Only We Could Return to the Pre-Trump Era”  101 pattern, offering a stunning survey of how racism and racial scapegoating have shaped American politics for centuries. The Great White Hoax is an ideal resource for courses that look at race relations, white privilege, the intersectionality of race, class, and gender identities, presidential politics, and political propaganda.” White Like Me: Race, Racism, & White Privilege in America (2013): “White Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the U.S. through the lens of whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we’ve entered a post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with this legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality and race-driven political resentments today.” QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION 1. Having learned about the problems with the color-blind perspective, do you still find that you are sympathetic to its claims? Why or why not? 2. Do you think a truly post-racial America is possible? Why or why not? If so, what do you think some of the preconditions might be for this to become a reality? 3. Why do you think some Americans of color endorse color blindness, whereas other Americans of color strongly resist such claims? REACHING BEYOND THE COLOR LINE 1. If you are a White student, consider sharing with your White family members and friends how color-blind thinking actually harms both White Americans and Americans of color. Would this be difficult to do? Why or why not? What steps might you take to become more comfortable talking about race, racism, and racial inequality? 2. If you are a student of color, think about how the color-blind perspective has shaped your understanding about race in both your own life and the larger society. How has the ideology of color blindness played a role in how you interpret social and political issues? 3. If you have family members and friends of different races, make the decision to regularly talk with them about how race and racism continue to be relevant across social institutions and settings. REFERENCES American Historical Association. (2021, January 21). AHA condemns report of the Advisory 1776 Commission. https://www.historians.org/news-andadvocacy/aha-advocacy/aha-statement-con demning-report-of-advisory-1776-commission(january-2021) Bonilla-Silva, E. (1996). Rethinking racism: Toward a structural interpretation. American Sociological Review, 62(3), 465–480. Bendick, M., Jr., Jackson, C. W., & Reinoso, V. A. (1994). Measuring employment discrimination through controlled experiments. Review of Black Political Economy, 23(1), 25–48. Brenan, M. (2020, September 16). Optimism about Black Americans’ opportunities in U.S. falls. 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