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Structural Racism and Colorblind Ideology

Structural Racism: A Pervasive Force

  • Structural racism impacts every facet of life:
    • Jobs and employment
    • Wealth accumulation
    • Experiences of discrimination
    • Educational opportunities
    • Criminal justice system
    • Media representation
    • Housing availability
    • Healthcare access (including mental health)
    • Insurance agencies
    • Access to loans and banking services
  • Manifests as racial disparity across these domains.

The Ideological Battle: Structural Racism vs. Colorblindness

  • Over the last 40 years, a conflict has emerged between two narratives:
    • Structural racism: acknowledging systemic racial inequalities.
    • Colorblindness: the belief that ignoring race will lead to equality.

Defining Structural Racism

  • Structural racism is the normalization and legitimization of dynamics that advantage whites while producing adverse outcomes for people of color.
    • These dynamics are:
      • Historical
      • Cultural
      • Institutional
      • Interpersonal
    • The effects are cumulative and chronic.

Understanding Colorblind Ideology

  • Colorblindness argues that racial equality can only be achieved by ignoring race.
    • Rejects racial categorizations and record-keeping.
    • Advocates for no distinctions based on race.
  • Assumes that race is not currently a factor.
  • Resistant to acknowledging or measuring racial disparities.
  • Presumes racial hierarchies are not already in place.
  • Rejects policies designed to redress past discrimination.
    • Views affirmative action-like programs as problematic.
  • The Supreme Court has curtailed efforts to remedy past discrimination based on colorblind ideology.

The Logic of Colorblindness: A Self-Check

  • Individuals may rationalize colorblindness by thinking:
    • Most people believe in racial equality, including myself.
    • Laws have outlawed discrimination.
    • I don't see color, so I can't be racist.
    • I don't receive special benefits based on whiteness.
    • Therefore, racism isn't causing inequalities.

The Focus on Behavior

  • Colorblind ideology attributes racial inequalities to individual behavior.
    • Assumes no structural impediments exist.
    • Imputes cultural limitations to those experiencing discrimination.

Disparity in Perceptions of Racial Equality

  • A study by Lawrence Bobo revealed significant differences in perceptions of racial equality:
    • 61% of whites believe equality has already been achieved.
    • An additional 20% of whites believe it is on the horizon.
    • Only 17% of Black people think equality has been achieved.
    • 36% of Black people think it is on the horizon.
  • This gap in perception hinders the consciousness needed to fight structural racism.
  • This difference in perception can lead to a rejection of policies that would counter structural racisim.

Colorblindness and Public Narrative

  • The mainstream narrative, driven by colorblindness, uses strategies to downplay structural racism.
    • Structural Anomalies: Treat incidents as isolated events.
      • Examples: "The criminal justice system works; sometimes it doesn't.", "It was just a procedural thing."
    • The One Bad Apple: Attribute issues to individual rogue actors.
    • Demonization of the Victim/Community: Marginalize victims to normalize the status quo.
      • Example: Referencing Freddie Gray as the son of an uneducated heroin addict to devalue his humanity and normalize what happened to him.

Impediments to Addressing Structural Racism

  • Even if structural racism is acknowledged, challenges remain:
    • Discrimination continues in new forms and practices.
      • Example: Subprime lending as the inverse of redlining.
    • Colorblind ideology hides what's going on and blames personal behavior.
    • The "special favors" narrative resists policies designed to counter structural racism.

The Housing Structural Racism Work Project

  • Aims to tell the story of structural racism in a way that builds emotional momentum.
  • Focuses on five key areas:
    • Media
    • Criminal Justice
    • Housing
    • Wealth
    • Education
  • These areas are interconnected and designed to reproduce disparities.
  • The system is not a one-off or a bad apple, but a history of intentional constant reproduction through different mechanisms.
  • They are interactive and interconnected along multiple pegs.
  • These spheres reinforce each other.
  • The goal is to explain that the system is designed to reproduce these disparities.

Housing as a Central Gear

  • Policies have historically created and constrained black communities.
  • These policies:
    • Devalue communities and property owners.
    • Create hurdles for home and business ownership.
    • Transfer risks, creating pockets of privilege and buffer zones.
    • Disaccumulate troubles and problems from one area and hyper-accumulated in communities of color.

Redlining

  • Redlining, through the Homeowners Loan Corporation and the FHA (1933-1977), used a color-coded system to determine loan eligibility.
  • Green areas (A rating) were all-white neighborhoods.
  • Red areas were neighborhoods with black residents, deemed ineligible for loans.
  • Partnerships between government and private businesses transferred value and privilege to whiteness.
  • George Lipsitz calls this a possessive investment in whiteness.
  • This investment in whiteness meant people wanted to hold on to it and protect it.

The Fair Housing Act of 1968

  • Banned discrimination, intimidation, coercion, racial steering, blockbusting, and redlining.
  • Aimed to level the housing playing field.
  • Richard Nixon, however, was not supportive and called it forced integration.
  • Between 1974 and 1983, no money was withheld from cities practicing housing discrimination.
  • Highlights the danger of relying on laws without enforcement.

The Logic of the Ghetto

  • The logic of the ghetto is that it is an intentional construction.
  • Practices, policies and behaviors created fragile, deprived and burdened neighborhoods.
  • These neighboorhoods carry accumulated disadvantages produced in other parts of society.

Interconnected Spheres

  • The power and legacy of housing discrimination is much more powerful when you think about it in relationship to the spheres that are around it.

Housing and Education

  • Public schools are funded through property taxes.
  • Lower home ownership rates and property values in black communities result in less funding for schools.
  • Undermines the idea of education as a great leveler.

Housing and Criminal Justice

  • Segregation facilitates racialized policing and surveillance.
  • Allows for two-tiered systems to exist unnoticed.
  • Enables practices like the War on Drugs and stop-and-frisk in segregated communities.

Housing and Wealth

  • Housing is a significant source of wealth transfer.
  • Transferring wealth away from minority communities into white communities has been significant intergenerationally.

Housing and Media/Culture

  • Fixation on culturalization of black ghetto life.
  • The ghetto is understood as a black cultural space, not a structural formation.
  • Understood as street culture and gangs and drugs and guns and sex trade.
  • It becomes not a form of structural racism, not a form of deprivation of circumstances and oppression, but a kind of cultural choice.

Points of Entry

  • Despite the daunting nature of structural racism, there are points of entry for change.

The Ban the Box Movement

  • Aims to outlaw the requirement for individuals with a criminal record to disclose it on job and housing applications.
  • Seeks to remove the stigma and barriers faced by formerly incarcerated individuals.
  • Has expanded to prevent the destabilization of families and communities.

Fair Lending Organizations

  • Work to combat discriminatory lending practices.
  • Some counties require developers to include affordable housing in their projects.

Conclusion

  • There's no way we're going to know all there is to know about structural racism, so we want to keep learning and keep growing.
  • Visual and emotional engagement can bring these ideas to the public. Thank you very much.