scholarly journals Color-Blind Racism in Pandemic Times

2020 ◽  
pp. 233264922094102
Author(s):  
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

In this article the author examines how the frameworks of color-blind racism have influenced many topics during the pandemic. Using readily available material from popular culture (TV shows, newspaper and magazine articles, and advertisements) and from statements by government officials, the author examines how color blindness has shaped our national discussion on essential workers and heroes, charity, and differential mortality. The main argument is that color-blind racism is limiting our understanding of the structural nature of the various racial problems coronavirus disease 2019 has revealed, making it difficult to envision the kinds of policies needed to address them. the author concludes by summarizing what these ideological perspectives block from view as well as addressing the nascent discursive cracks that might be used to produce alternative frames for interpreting matters and organizing collective action.

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (13) ◽  
pp. 1789-1809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Mayorga-Gallo

In this article, I present a framework for diversity as a racial ideology that rearticulates the logic of civil rights. Diversity ideology is, in part, a co-optation of calls for race consciousness that challenged color blindness: it highlights race and other axes of difference to achieve a color-blind ideal of fairness where race will no longer matter. In this way, diversity ideology creates space for minor acknowledgment of structural inequality in the abstract. This is an important difference from color-blind racism, which explains inequality as a function of the past, individual “racist” bad apples, or the failings of people of color. The logic of diversity ideology is based on four tenets (diversity as acceptance, diversity as intent, diversity as commodity, and diversity as liability) that frame an amorphous diversity as the answer to racial inequality, while centering white people’s desires and feelings. These conceptualizations of diversity are devoid of power and history, which is how systemic whiteness is reinscribed.


Public Voices ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth A. Wielde ◽  
David Schultz

The importance of studying public service portrayals in popular film lies in theimportance of popular culture itself. Popular culture defines generations, both creating and reflecting trends. It provides a window to worlds that may otherwise be a mystery. Popular film messages merge with other media and environmental factors to form a perceived reality for many (Kelly and Elliott 2000).This article examines the depiction of non-elected public servants in movies. It seeks to identify how these individuals are depicted in film and to determine if there are any specific stereotypes or patterns that emerge regarding how Hollywood describes nonelected government officials. It will do this by undertaking a content analysis of a small sample of recent government-themed feature films, ones that have entered into the popular culture mainstream since the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as certain earlier films that have entrenched themselves into the popular culture vernacular.


1969 ◽  
Vol 35 (8) ◽  
pp. 609-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerome D. Schein ◽  
John A. Salvia

Recent studies of mentally retarded children have found substantially higher rates of color blindness than are usually reported for the general population. In 2 of these studies, sex differences in color blindness, invariably found in intellectually normal children, do not appear. Reanalysis of data from one of the studies of retarded children suggests the possibility that the high rates arise from the difficulty in comprehending the test and following the directions rather than from faulty color vision. However, even if the number of color blind retarded children is actually lower than these studies show, the need for research on this topic seems apparent. Using color dependent instructional materials with color blind, mentally retarded children may be detrimental.


1998 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 579
Author(s):  
Ashley W. Doane ◽  
Leslie G. Carr

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 200-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria C. Plaut ◽  
Kecia M. Thomas ◽  
Kyneshawau Hurd ◽  
Celina A. Romano

This article offers insight from psychological science into whether models of diversity (e.g., color blindness and multiculturalism) remedy or foster discrimination and racism. First, we focus on implications of a color-blind model. Here, the literature suggests that while color blindness appeals to some individuals, it can decrease individuals’ sensitivity to racism and discrimination. Furthermore, the literature suggests that, with some exceptions, color blindness has negative implications for interracial interactions, minorities’ perceptions and outcomes, and the pursuit of diversity and inclusion in organizational contexts. Second, we examine circumstances under which a multicultural approach yields positive or negative implications for interracial interactions, organizational diversity efforts, and discrimination. The research reviewed coalesces to suggest that while multiculturalism generally has more positive implications for people of color, both models have the potential to further inequality.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantinos Constantinou ◽  
Zenonas Tziarras

This article examines the ways in which (pop or) popular culture may fall within the context of foreign policy. More specifically, it situates our analysis against such backdrop by delving into how Turkey effectively exports pop culture, propaganda and positive images of itself via the use of television (TV) shows. To that end, notable Turkish soap operas market its ancient glorious past. Admittedly, these telenovelas form a salient cultural product export for Turkey as they reach diverse and far-away audiences – from Latin America to Russia, Central Asia, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Balkans, to merely name a few. Paradoxically, the frenzy has even reached places like Greece. Not to mention, Serbia or Israel, with the latter’s phenomenal success accompanied also with some backlash. Therefore, the current study seeks to better understand the magnitude alongside the impact of Turkey’s achievement given how it comprises a multi-million-dollar industry, by partially unearthing what makes Turkish TV series so powerful the world over. Further, this research firstly presents an analysis of the hegemonic efforts before presenting the limitations to its success by thoroughly covering the empirical data while, theoretically framing it.  


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Cattien

Alias Grace is just one of the many recent TV shows that was labelled ‘feminist’ so quickly and with such ease that one is left to wonder how much of a genre ‘feminism’ has already become. This article interrogates what is at stake for ‘feminist’ critique in labelling cultural phenomena as ‘feminist’. I argue that certain ways of reading Alias Grace as a ‘feminist’ show preclude an alternative reading in which Alias Grace emerges as a critique of ‘feminism’ itself. What is at stake in the debate on ‘feminism’ in popular culture is thus not only whether or not we can recognise the potential for ‘feminist’ critique that resides within popular culture, but also whether or not we can allow socio-cultural phenomena, like TV shows, to take ‘feminism’ as an object of critique: to generate the kind of critical movement that renders futile any attempt to stabilise, or reify, the signifier ‘feminism’ as an ahistorical object with fixed meanings – as a genre even. In so doing, I take it that there is no privileged site from which to engender such movement; and I do not take popular culture as a self-contained domain that could qualify for being such a site. The point, then, is not to treat Alias Grace as a representative case study in popular ‘feminism’; but rather, to demonstrate, by way of Alias Grace, the complex and contradictory readings that socio-cultural phenomena are amenable to, and which in turn give rise to critical possibilities that unfold from within these phenomena. Reading Alias Grace critically, as I understand it in this article, means allowing it to be, at one and the same time, a reflection on itself and a reflection on the world in which it so quickly comes to be labelled ‘feminist’.


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