Colorblind Racial Attitudes

The Myth of ‘Post-racial’ America: Color-blind Racism in the Push to Repeal Affirmative Action in Higher Education

It is common knowledge that the topic of race is being examined all over the world. Frequently, more efforts are made through formation of policies, enactment of laws, and abolition of practices to obliterate racial discrimination. The pace of success of this endeavor is being delayed by the media because the media constantly portrays race in an inappropriate and derogatory manner. A race as described by Yolanda. T. Moses is a group of people who share similar and unique characteristics, while racial stereotypes are automatic and mental pictures held about all members of a particular social group. When people are stereotyped racially, they do not take into account individual differences .The media’s poor understanding of the true meaning of race has been communicated to the general public, making people think race is a biological phenomenon whereas it is socially and culturally constructed (Moses 735) and this has caused the increase in racial stereotypes by media’s continuous portrayal of negative stereotypes of different races all over the world.

The title of the paper intends to raise awareness about the large number of historians and activists still struggling to clearly define their understanding of racial identities. Given the complex use of the term “race” in biology, in everyday life, and in the social sciences, this does not come as a surprise. However, without properly addressing issues of historical and present understandings of race, both scholars and activists run the risk of reinforcing rather than challenging racial misconceptions.

The word diversity is indispensible in college pamphlets. Pictures of multicultural friendships permeate across each page in hopes of providing a mirrored image for prospective students. These pictures suggest a promised safe place for young adults of all backgrounds. However, in the instance of San Jose State University, one could argue their actions differ from the pictured proposal. Their main focus became avoiding liability rather than facilitating a safe environment for ethnic difference. This mentality typically reflects a view that claims acts of active racism and blatant bigotry should take the forefront of discussion while their comprising acts of passive racism are left behind. Campus conversations about race are being silenced

Based on the survey, my results did not mirror my expected attitudes. My results of the survey exemplified that I give moderate autonomic preference to European American over African Americans. I believe that is not really true because I give equal importance to everyone. I don’t judge a person based on his/her color. I treat everyone equally whether the person is black, white or brown. I have a lot of friends from different races such as Asians, African Americans and Mexicans. Finally, my attitude toward everyone is equal.

University of Michigan professor, Lisa Nakamura’s work entitled Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet examines how different races are represented online. The Internet, according to Nakamura, is a place where ‘race happens’ (p.xi), and the stereotypes that are found on/offline define Cybertypes. These Cybertypes lay out the unique ways in which the Internet ‘propagates, disseminates, and commodifies images of race and racism’ (p.3)

Colorblind ideology is a covert form of racism that emerged as a racial ideology in the late 1960s concomitantly with the formation of the new racism as America’s new racial structure. Colorblind Ideology operates in four mainframes, Abstract Liberalism, Naturalization Cultural racism, and Minimization of racism. These four frames are plaguing the quality of the nation’s education. Colorblind ideology, at face value, is the belief that acknowledging a person's race is synonymous with being racist. In other words, Peoples of Color’s races are being ignored and disregarded because evidently, the only way some white can’t be racist is for race not to exist at all. This makes sense when

Researchers regularly research the media’s influence on race perception, but rarely examine one specific form: video games. Unlike formats such as television and newspapers, video games provide an interactive platform for users to live in an alternative world and perform acts considered socially wrong in real societies (Burgess et al). This form of virtual simulation can reinforce how one perceives stereotypes at higher rates. Not only do the majority of these games feature white protagonists, but also task them to defeat ethnically-ambiguous enemies. Currently, the most popular genre is shooter games set in the Middle East, where the

From its initial inception, color has been a primary factor in virtually every aspect of life in the United States—beginning with colonialism, manifest destiny, and the white man’s burden. The notion of white supremacy is engrained in American history as far back as our very Constitution which defined Africans as property. The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States is often emphasized by those in our country who proclaim we live in a colorblind society. These same people like to argue that we’ve moved past the days where people in society only saw color. Instead, we have progressed to the point where color and prejudice are no longer key factors in decision making and personal preferences. But are we truly a colorblind society? If so, is colorblindness a good thing?

The media portrays a negative bias towards African-Americans and Muslims which can disproportionately influence those who consume the media. This study aims to identify if college students – or young adults – will stereotype an individual if they are promised anonymity. Some participants received a stimuli that was aimed at identifying African-American prejudice and the others received a stimuli aimed at identifying Muslim prejudice. It was hypothesized that the type of article given would not affect the participants’ responses but anonymity will. The results revealed that none of the conditions had an effect on how the participants answered revealing that stereotyping amongst college students is not as extreme as it may

In practice, racism and racial attitudes are not static and are not universal from person to person. For example, a child might have completely different attitudes toward different races than his or her parents. This is what makes the study of racism so difficult for researchers. Not only do racial attitudes vary from person to person, but they vary across class lines, regions, and even continents. Researchers Baldwin, Day and Hecht studied racial tolerance across different variables such as attitudes toward dating, marriage, media attention, and shared housing (2000).

Although it is not direct racism anymore, it is still present. Young children are also quickly picking up on it. With this new gained knowledge from the experiments one can learn that biases need to be put aside when meeting or hearing about someone new. The color of one’s skin or the letters scribbled across their name tag do not define one as a person. It is instead in their actions, words, and how they treat others that one should be judged. Not surprisingly, this task takes much longer than one quick glance and should be treated as

The United States is a diverse country in terms of race, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexuality among others and this difference are perceived differently by every American resulting in stereotyping, discrimination, and inequality. Racial discrimination and inequality is a social issue in the United States that has caused many social injustices to the minority groups. This paper reviews the works of two authors on the issue of diversity – Blink in Black and White by Malcolm Gladwell and The Model Minority by Frank H and argues that people’s attitudes and behaviors towards people of different races are influenced by the implicit messages in the media.

Everyone judges and place impressions on others subjected of race before engaging with that person. I think it is a natural habit for anyone to judge someone based off of racial identity, it is something we do to know the main basic information about the individual. If you and I were blindfolded when we introduced ourselves, it would be very difficult to get a feel on the person we are engaging with. The only thing we could assume with our ears is if it’s a male or female. We could not assume the height, weight, race or age. If a woman was treated badly by a boyfriend that acted dishonestly she will think that any other man who acts dishonestly is a cheater. If you met a very arrogant person then seen someone that looked just like him you will

Our research topic is facial threat with an emphasis on media influence. The study will focus on how the media exposes the preconceived prejudice biases people of color who have a browner skin tone. In addition, the study will also focus on how mass media information about a social group influences the perceptions of and behavior toward that social group. The independent variable is mass media influence and the dependent variable is the likelihood a person of color will be stereotyped as a