Feretich 1

Humans are biologically programmed to categorize living beings. From

plants to food to other humans, we are constantly putting certain things into groups
and claiming which are good or bad. Prehistoric groups of people would often
single out other groups based on skin color or appearance. So, to look at race and
discrimination as a modern day social invention is a problem that most people who
argue about it have. Furthermore, it is generally impossible to claim we can do away
with race or discrimination in its entirety. Race and discrimination in America has
come a long way, especially after the Civil Rights Movement, but we are far from
being a colorblind society. But to be a colorblind society is an ignorant goal, in my
opinion. There are many flaws with the idea of being/becoming a colorblind society,
some of which would be detrimental to functioning and continuation of the society
we know now.
Race is socially constructed; it is social organization, ranking people based off
physical variations. Racial distinctions affect the reproduction patterns of power
and inequality in society, however, rather than merely making differences in
humans visible (Giddens et al. 2012: 335). The categorizing of humans leads to the
judging and exploiting of them, which leads to intensive power struggles in society.
With race comes discrimination which is/was/will be the main cause of struggle in
America.
Looking at race/discrimination from a functionalist perspective (how the
certain aspect of it adds to the continuation of society) may be helpful in
understanding races role in our lives. Racism, in contrast to previous decades, is
now a latent function, meaning it is no longer completely realized or premeditated.
Feretich 2
There has been steady improvement of racial attitudes in the U.S. due to the growing
influence of the black middle class (Bobo et al.). Because of this, the definitions of
race, racism and discrimination are less apparent or socially agreed upon. The type
of racism going on in America today has been described as laissez-faire racism,
which means that the forms and mechanisms of domination are now far more
loosely defined (Bobo et al.). The legacies of historic racial discriminations are what
allow for race and discrimination to continue controlling the lives of people in our
modern society. African Americans remain in a disadvantaged position in the social
hierarchy and they are stereotyped and blamed as being the architects of this
disadvantaged status (Bobo et al.).
Going along with the idea of laissez-faire racism, there are now the ideas of
new racism, also known as cultural racism, rather than the previous biological
racism that controlled racial interactions in the past. There was a rejection of
biological racism following the dismissal of state-sanctioned segregating in 1954.
Cultural racism is the constructing of hierarchies in accordance with majority
culture. People are marginalized or vilified for their refusal to assimilate (Giddens
et al. 2012: 338). According to Charles W. Mills, in his novel The Racial Contract,
cultural racism allows partial membership in the epistemic community based on
the extent to which nonwhites show themselves capable of mastering white western
culture (Mills, 61).
So, this is the current state of race/discrimination in our country as of now: it
has adapted in a way that most people would say it is either minimal or close to no
longer existing, when it is more so based on passive-aggressive thoughts, born of
Feretich 3
previous discriminatory actions in the past making our modern forms of race even
more vile than the previous ones. We have a systematic discrimination that is not
always addressed. The social conflict is still present, but it is made to seem less
centralized than it truly is in our society. Marxists, who take interest in conflict and
divisions in society, place emphasis on power. Race and discrimination give power
to whites. So, the obvious solution here would be to do away with race and thereby
giving people fair chances in where they will stand in the social hierarchy. This
connects with the idea of colorblindness (in relevance with discrimination and
race).
The idea of colorblindness itself is an ignorant one. Colorblindness involves
the ignoring or minimalizing of group differences; it is an assimilationists dream
solution to the issue of race. If anything, it would create even more bias in our
country. Emphasizing the minimization of group differences may reinforce majority
dominance and minority marginalization (Plaut et al.). The main questions to ask
would be: In a colorblind society, would we go along with the white culture? Would
the process be mass-assimilation? Would it reinforce bigoted ideals of there being a
greater culture? If you ask and think about these questions, it is clear that we are
not currently a colorblind society, and a colorblind society itself would be a negative
one to live in.
America is not colorblind, plain and simple. What is going on that may allow
for people to think it is would be that there are currently strained interracial
interactions (Norton et al.). There is a desire to appear unprejudiced but to say you
are colorblind just makes way for there to be a larger emphasis on race. Just like
Feretich 4
the idea of antiracism, which seeks to confront and end racism, colorblindness is
backwards. The general attempt is appreciated and visible, but it is redundant in
action because it is like screaming, I dont notice all the differences we have!
Therefore, the ultimate societal goal should not be to become a colorblind
society and rather become a society that is based off of multiculturalism.
Multiculturalism stresses the recognizing and celebrating of group differences
(Plaut et al.). It is a pluralistic ideal and may create less bias. It promotes inclusive
behaviors and policies rather than neglecting there are differences to begin with.
Charles W. Mills described colorblindness as illusory and that it treats the present
as a somehow neutral baseline rendering permanent the ideas of race: trying to
assimilate the categories into the socially accepted one (Mills, 77).
Colorblindness neglects the past. It is, in my opinion, an ignorance or
acceptance of racism, nearly. It leaves room for there to be a majoral culture, which
is not a good solution to the current problem of race. The whole idea of there being
one culture we should all follow is where race in America originated from, so why
should we lean towards that as a solution? The celebration of differences would
leave room for acceptance if there were an end to the tensions left behind by
ancestors. Living in an accepting multicultural society should be our goal. Rather
than completely disregarding our past(s) and forcing mass-assimilation on to the
general public, we should look at race and how it functions in society and try to
create a new approach where instead of categorizing, we simply live and accept
others all while acknowledging the differences that got us here in the first place.

Feretich 5
Works Cited
Bobo, Lawrence, James R. Kluegel, and Ryan A. Smith. Laissez-Faire Racism: The
Crystallization of a Kinder, Gentler, Antiblack Ideology. Ed. Steven A. Tuch
and Jack K. Martin. Racial Attitudes in the 1990s: Continuity and Change.
Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997. N. pag. Print.
Giddens, Anthony, Mitchell Duneier, Richard P. Appelbaum, and Deborah Carr.
Introduction to Sociology. Eighth ed. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2012.
Print.Mills, Charles W. The Racial Contract. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1997. Print.Norton, M.
I., S. R. Sommers, E. P. Apfelbaum, N. Pura, and D. Ariely. Color Blindness
and Interracial Interaction: Playing the Political Correctness Game.
Psychological Science. 17.11 (2006) 949-53. Print.
Plaut, Victoria C., Kecia M. Thomas, and Matt J. Goren. Is Multiculuralism or Color
Blindness Better for Minorities? Psychological Science 20.4 (2009): 444-46.
Print.