Van Dijk describes 'old racism' as slaver, segregation, apartheid,
lynchings, systematic discriminaton, White superiority, clear
exemptions in public discourse and everyday conversations. 'New
racism', the author describes as democratic and respectable, denies
that it is racism, minorities are not inferior – but different.
Societal practices have a cognitive dimension, on beliefs people have
regarding knowledge, attitudes, ideologies, norms and values. In the
system of racism, this explains how and why individuals engage in
discriminatory practices – believing Others are inferior, less
intelligent, less competent, less modern, and so forth – thereby
Others should have fewer rights, or taking a 'We' first attitude and
approach.
Media elites are responsible for the continuation of this discourse.
This is because there is a lack of alternative sources, opponents to
mainstream media are weak, allowing media to abuse their power,
creating the 'new racism'. Minorities are rarely asked to speak along
in media, and a White person is typically there to essentially
validate or reject the minorities' opinions; opinions of minorities
are less asked for or found less credible. Furthermore, the 'new
racism' avoids racist labels, but it uses negative words to describe
minorities.
Bonilla-Silva's article highlights how Whites express their racial
views, while avoiding racist language, using 'semantic moves'. Using
such language, the dominant party is able to project their own views
to implicate the minority party, and at times become incoherent.
Certain phrases, such as “I am not racist...but...” and “some
of my best friends are Black...” are used to justify beliefs. The
article goes on to examine President Obama, how he has become an
example of a 'post-racial America', deconstructing this myth with
examples of Black youth getting shop by police, and economic
disparities between Whites and Blacks and Latinos.
As a person of colour, minority, Other, whatever people want to know
me as, a lot of what I read was not 'new' information – most people
with a critical lens can see the actions of the media, the dominant
group at play. I could draw upon example after example in my own life
to highlight this. I find that many Canadians believe that these
issues are not prevalent in here, and look south of the border, and
believe it is an American problem. This is probably because most
studies on race issues come out of the States. Recently, CBC
Marketplace has been doing a terrific job with their Are we
racist? Series, bringing the
Canadian reality to the forefront. Also, with the rise of cell phone
cameras, we are now able to arm ourselves by creating our own
'media', broadcasting our experiences through blogs, vlogs, and so
forth.
I don't exactly agree with
Bonilla-Silva's call for mobilization of people of colour as the key
to “challenging the emerging racial order” - I do believe it is
important, but, to put it bluntly, no one cares when a person of
colour gets shot, or arrested for protesting or anything – sorry
when a person of colour protests, it's called rioting, or disturbing
the peace. We have not changed much since the 1960s. Only when Whites
see people that look like themselves get shot or arrested, do they
take notice, so I would rather call upon our White friends to assist
in the struggle. Every White person seems to have that 'one Black
friend', surely, every Black person must have the 'one White friend'
then?
References:
Van Dijk, T.A., New(s) racism: A discourse analytical approach.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2015). The structure of racism in color-blind,
“post-racial” America. American Behavioral Scientist, 59
(11), 1358-1376.
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