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.