Ashley Linton

Lisa Diomande
English 110
March 19, 2015
Critical Analysis

The article, The new-threat: Racism without Racists, by john Blake of CNN, suggests
that racism has changed and is now harder to detect. The new racism is subtle,
institutionalized and seemingly nonracial, an interesting quote taken from Eduardo BonillaSilvas book Racism without Racists. New racism is extreme bias that is often overlooked, an
example given was that white NBA referees call more fouls on black players, and black referees
call more fouls on white players. Another example was from the American Journal of Sociology,
which showed that newly released white felons experience better job hunting success than young
black men with no criminal background. It is hard to address these problems because the
majority are blind to their bias tendencies. Failing to realize the part that people personally play
in this issue, leaves society at a standstill.
The chances unknowingly taken from minorities is dangerous to their societal and
economical progression. A famous experiment carried out by the University of Chicago and MIT
helped support this by sending out 5,000 fictitious resumes in response to 1,300 help wanted ads.
Each resume listed identical qualifications, the only difference were some applicants had white
sounding names, Brendan, while the others had black sounding names, Jamal. The results of
this experiment was that the white sounding names were 50% more likely to get calls for
interviews. These unrecognizable biases place a glass ceiling on the success of minorities and
aids the widening wealth gap between whites and blacks. As pointed out by Nicholas Kristof in
The New York Times, this gap is greater than the one in South Africa during apartheid.

The article also takes time to explain that people who claim to not see color are
deluding themselves. Solidifying this with a large body of research over the past 50 years,
showing that people notice race, gender, wealth and weight. Howard J. Ross, author of
Everyday Bias, contribute that babies as young as 3 months old prefer the presence of people
of their own race. If preference can occur at such a young age, so can learning. Knowing that
race is an issue, trying to lower its effect in society should remain a priority, in the workplace, at
home, and everyday interactions. Teaching children to not prefer a race, and to instead embrace
all types of people based on the individuals attitude would be a good start in erasing racism from
future generations.
Racism is a problem on personal levels, but also remains an issue beyond to the systems
that make these subliminal racial actions okay. An example from the article was a cop targeting a
teen while walking while black (WWB), and the law enforcement system that makes it okay to
stop him and put him in their system, which will limit his life chances for life. The radicalness of
this cannot be fully conveyed by simply saying that this is not fair, but it should be also
understood that it is not right and on some level, inhumane. As a minority, seeing a police officer
in my neighborhood or sometimes elsewhere, does not really alleviate fear but instead aggravates
it. Less for myself because I am a female, but more for my brothers, friends, neighbors, and other
innocent by standers whose only crime is being black. Knowing that someones life can change
for the worse because they are black and simply decided to hang out with a friend or walk to the
store is bizarre and scary.
I am concerned about crime, property values, and schools is the new way of saying I
dont want them as a neighbor, as was usually said during the Jim Crow era. Overt racism is
widely rejected in America, so people have designed a way around it. Keeping blacks out of

influential institutions and from possessing powerful positions is a part of the new racism. It has
been pointed out that two-thirds of Fergusons population is black, but the mayor, police chief,
five of six city council members, and 50 of 53 people in the Police Department are white. Blake
summarizes this in a very effective statement: Ferguson is like countless multiracial
communities, calm on the surface but seething with racial disparities beneath.
The majority of power in Ferguson being held by whites, and the resulting situation has
made it possible to get a ruling of disparate impact. According to the article this is a legal
approach that doesnt try to plumb the racists intentions of individuals or businesses but looks at
the racial impact of their decisions. In the Ferguson case they wouldnt have to prove that the
police departments white leaders are racist, but instead would only have to show the effect of
having all white officers in an almost all-black town, as stated in the article. This was quickly
shut down because they claim that government should be colorblind, and there is no difference in
government action that discriminates against minorities and one that benefits them. An AfricanAmerican Studies professor, Mark D. Naison, concludes that what this means for Ferguson is any
aggressive attempt to integrate the police force could be struck down in court. Unless a lawyer
can prove that police department officials said they wont hire blacks, nothing can be done to
make the department more diverse.
Even though realizing the problem has been an issue in treating racism, this shows that
even when the problem is clear and evident, nothing can or will be done to fix it. As long as our
society as a whole is this passive on racism, it will continue to play a major role in the decline of
minorities as individuals, minorities as a group, and society as a whole.