Analysis Of White Anti-Racist Activism By Eduardo Bonilla-Blind Racism

Jennifer R. Holladay, the interim director of the Teaching Tolerance program at Southern Poverty Law Center, mentions an eye-popping statement in her book, White Anti-Racist Activism: A Personal Roadmap. It says, “White privilege is not something that white people necessarily do, create, or enjoy on purpose. Unlike the more overt individual and institutional manifestations of racism, it is a transparent preference for whiteness that saturates our society” (Holladay). Holladay is trying to convince her readers that individuals with white skin tend to receive more perks than minority races for no apparent reason, through her words. This is the exact same message that is conveyed in Color-Blind Racism, an essay by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva. The

First of all, in the third sentence of the essay, Bonilla-Silva states, “I contend that racism is, more than anything else, a matter of group power; it is about a dominant racial group (whites) striving to maintain its systemic advantages and minorities fighting to subvert the racial status quo” (131). Bonilla-Silva’s statement is extremely accurate. Over time, society has unofficially declared white skin as the dominant race, and makes many individuals with white skin feel superior over others who are not blessed with the same white complexion. During the Civil Rights Movement, this lead to people of minority races, especially blacks, fighting for basic rights that should not of vanished in the first place. Rosa Parks is a perfect example of a person who is a member of a minority race who had to fight for basic rights. She, a black woman, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, and was arrested for it. Think about what would of happened if the white man was asked to give his seat to Parks, and refused. He would not of been arrested, that is for sure. The man is a member of the dominant race, and that gives him an advantage over Parks, with the only reason being that he is white, and she is

In the second paragraph of the essay, he states, “Blacks--and dark-skinned racial minorities--lag well behind whites in virtually every relevant social indicator” (131). After this statement, Bonilla-Silva lists numerous stereotypes of African Americans. The fact that blacks are poorer and less educated than whites are the stereotypes that stand out the most. Judging someone’s social class, strengths, and personality traits based on their race can lead to one getting an inaccurate assumption about a person. By doing so, it is causing caucasians to have numerous advantages over people of minority races, because they are not being given the opportunity to show the world that they are better than their stereotype. For example, say a company has two people that they are considering for a job. One person is black, and the other is white. Both people are equally qualified for the job. The company chooses to hire the white applicant immediately because based on stereotypes, he is more intelligent than the black applicant, even though they have absolutely no other evidence to support this