Modern American school during the crisis of the colorblind racial ideology

The article analyses the ideological crisis, which the US system of education faces nowadays. It evaluates the colorblind racial ideology that has remained predominant for several decades, its basic features, strong and weak points, and a number of social racial problems, which arose due to the prevalence of this ideology in schools and colleges of education in the USA. The author brings a set of reasons given by supporters of the considered ideology, and proves the fact that despite its original right-mindedness this ideology often gives reverse results. The study dwells upon the ways of how the colorblind racial ideology negatively influences the educational process of the black US citizens. It also highlights the XXI century’s alternative trends, which advocate for multicultural education and encourage instructing people on racial problems and interaction. The conclusion goes that the search of optimal ways to integrate the culturally relevant pedagogy into the USA’s system of education has started but is still far from being completed, which provides space for a wide range of further scientific and methodological research.

Assessing Local “Diversity”: A Nationally Representative Analysis

The meanings and definition of “diversity” can change across different applications and contexts, but many such meanings have implications for racial difference and racial ideology in the United States. We provide a nationally representative analysis of how everyday Americans assess “diversity” in their own communities. We test how county-level racial, religious, economic, and political heterogeneity predict the view that one lives in a highly diverse locale; we also test how individual-level factors predict such a view. Among the four indicators of local difference, racial difference is most strongly and consistently associated with Americans’ assessments of local diversity. Individual-level factors do not weaken this relationship; rather, local context and individual-level factors conjointly predict assessments of local diversity. Despite the flexible, hyperinclusive nature of diversity discourse, local racial difference is salient in Americans’ assessments of “diversity” in their communities, and this pattern is not simply a product of individual-level factors. Our findings illustrate another dimension of the flexible-yet-racialized nature of diversity discourse in the United States. We also show that Americans are particularly aware of racial difference in their locale, which has implications for social and ideological responses to changing communities and a changing nation.

Psychological Predictors for Watching Television: The Role of Racial Representation

This study explored psychological predictors that may impact viewers’ decision to watch television shows on the basis of perceived racial or ethnic representation. 1998 undergraduate students selected from a list of motivations for watching television that included race-specific motivations such as “a character is of my race/ethnicity.” Participants also completed attitudinal measures of colorblind racial ideology, social dominance orientation, ethnic identity, and ethnic stigma consciousness. Analysis revealed that prejudicial beliefs predicted less salience for racial representation when making choices about television watching, while deeper connection to one’s ethnic group predicted greater salience for representation when making these choices.

Between Post-Racial Ideology and Provincial Universalisms: Critical Race Theory, Decolonial Thought and COVID-19 in Britain

This article looks at the British government’s handling of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. We argue that to analyse the government’s handling of this situation, we need to synergize insights from critical race theory (CRT) with decolonial thought. CRT shows how the pandemic has revealed and exacerbated racial inequalities within Britain, while these inequalities are then explained away through a post-racial ideology. Contrastingly, decolonial thought helps us to understand how Britain practises western and little Englander universalisms; neglecting other countries’ successful strategies of handling the pandemic, as they seek to pursue a ‘world-beating’ strategy to defeat the virus rather than help forge a global solidarity.