Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

The introduction of Senate Bill 1070 revitalized the immigration discourse on a
national level. Through a qualitative content analysis method, this study uses a novel
Integrated Covert Nativism Framework to understand how 21st century nativism frames
the discourse surrounding SB 1070. The discourse surrounding immigration reform
before the bill was introduced included discussion of rights for undocumented migrants,
but shifted toward discussing the civil rights violations of documented citizens,
perpetuating the nativist binary. The discourse also minimized the significance of race
and emphasized reporting non-race related issues surrounding SB 1070, such as the
debate of state and federal jurisdiction of immigration restriction. The Integrated Covert
Nativism Framework—a synthesis of color-blind racism and intersectionality theory helps clarify the covert forms of bias that marginalize migrants and women’s rights
issues.

This volume is a collection in Critical White Studies with a specific focus on privilege. Our focus here is on white privilege, approached from disciplines as diverse as philosophy, literature, sociology, psychology, and intellectual history. We have invited our contributors to adopt an expository style called “braided narrative,” which links the authors’ critical analyses to events and values that they identify as formative within their own lives. Our hope is that this stylistic innovation will provide students and readers a useful pedagogical tool, motivating them to inquire into their own experience of privilege. Our aim here is to map out relations between conscious perception, self-evaluation, and the ideas and images of white privilege tied to cultural and social institutions. It is in the service of this mapping that the personal narratives which our expository choice “braids into” scholarly analysis emerges as a crucial feature of Critical White Studies, as we understand it.

How do institutions that are, on their face, scrupulously race neutral nevertheless produce racially imbalanced outcomes? By employing Brown’s racialized conflict theory to the case studies of Georgia and Alabama during the 1990s, it will become evident how racialized conflicts, events, or series of events make racial divisions salient and racially polarize political groups. In turn, this fuels the passage of stricter social policies by activating racial attitudes and by creating a racialized discursive opportunity structure for activists and policy elites engaged in welfare policymaking. Additionally, it will be revealed how party leaders often go-back on certain policies by appeasing white resentment and threat. Following this discussion, Bonilla- Silva’s central tenets of colorblind racism will illustrate the subtle transition into the ‘new racism’; reinforced by minority politicians like Barack Obama who made the strategic move toward racelessness and adopted a post-racial persona while representing no threat to the power structure of America. It will become evident how central elements of liberalism have been rearticulated in post-civil rights America to rationalize the state of racial inequality in the country. This ‘new racism’ gives some room for exceptions and allows for a variety of ways of holding on to the frames – from crude and straightforward to gentle and indirect. Thus, conservatives and liberals can tiptoe around the most dangerous racial minefields because the stylistic elements of colorblindness provide them the necessary tools to get in and out of almost any discussion.

Who is white, and why should we care? There was a time when the immigrants of New York City’s Lower East Side—the Irish, the Poles, the Italians, the Russian Jews—were not white, but now “they” are. There was a time when the French-speaking working classes of Québec were told to “speak white,” that is, to speak English. Whiteness is an allegorical category before it is demographic.

This volume gathers together some of the most influential scholars of privilege and marginalization in philosophy, sociology, economics, psychology, literature, and history to examine the idea of whiteness. Drawing from their diverse racial backgrounds and national origins, these scholars weave their theoretical insights into essays critically informed by personal narrative. This approach, known as “braided narrative,” animates the work of award-winning author Eula Biss. Moved by Biss’s fresh and incisive analysis, the editors have assembled some of the most creative voices in this dialogue, coming together across the disciplines.

Along with the editors, the contributors are Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Nyla R. Branscombe, Drucilla Cornell, Lewis R. Gordon, Paget Henry, Ernest-Marie Mbonda, Peggy McIntosh, Mark McMorris, Marilyn Nissim-Sabat, Victor Ray, Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, Louise Seamster, Tracie L. Stewart, George Yancy, and Heidi A. Zetzer.

This article presents a grounded theory analysis of interviews with eight Black and nine white teachers in Nova Scotia, Canada. Patterned differences emerge between discourses used by Black versus white teachers to understand the roles of Black students' families in academic achievement. In varying degrees and respects, Black teacher interviewees viewed Black families positively, while white teacher interviewees usually viewed Black families negatively. Both perspectives have implications for family-school relationships: The negative perspectives reinforce the status quo and are characteristic of cultural racism as described by Bonilla-Silva, while positive expectations resist the status quo by identifying strength in Black families and communities. Our suggestions include dedicating resources to increasing the numbers of Black teachers in our schools and developing teacher training focused on how to relate to families across race and culture, in anti-racist and culturally sensitive ways.

People of African descent have dealt with the plague known as anti-Blackness since even before the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Anti-Blackness manifests through both thoughts (ideology) and actions (institutions and policy) that uphold white supremacist values. In fact, the United States of America became an economic power by convincing white Americans that Black people were inferior to white people, hence “white supremacy.” People often “forget” about scientific racism, or the notion that Black people were seen as a completely different — and inferior — species than white humans. By convincing white people that Black people were only three-fifths of a person or less, chattel slavery was seen as a justifiable vehicle for unpaid work and therefore higher profits.