Bonilla-Silva's Color-Blind Racism

The year is 2023 and racism is still prevalent. It still exists in western civilizations and throughout the “civilized” world. Although, it may not look like racism of years past that consisted of slavery, lynching, exploitation, or brutality towards people of color. Today it is carried out in a much more covert way that is a lot more subtle in nature and least likely to garner attention (Bonilla-Silva, 2003). Being an overt racist will attract too much unwanted attention and potentially make one a target of discipline. Being a covert racist will garner less attention. One can simply put on a front with behavior and or attitude that is much easier to deflect and deny racism. Bonilla-Silva’s Color-Blind Racism: Theoretical framework of how racism,
It can even be framed as unsafe and unbecoming of United States ideals. The negative responses represent the large population of white Americans but not individuals (Carter, Lippard, & Baird, 2019). Now if we apply this same logic to military opportunities, it would more than likely lead to the same result. Furthermore, anytime a person of color has earned or been awarded a position of esteem it is attributed to his color rather than his ability. In addition to abstract liberalism lies the minimization of racism in military culture, which is similar to stories. As cited in (Hamilton, Hartmann, & Larson 2022) The disregard of racism in the American idea of success allows for the removal of the race concept to be considered in culture. This concept allows for many in uniform to say things like, “racism doesn’t exist”, “It’s not real”, and “I’ve never seen it”. These types of statements and thought processes allow people to dismiss that racism occurs in the military. By minimizing, it allows individuals to maintain their power and or control as well as feel better about the situation and maintain the status quo (Bonilla-Silva,
As Bonilla-Silva (2015) stated, many people ascribe to the stories about race. These stories can be negative in nature and are fostered by those that have a direct impact on raising offspring. So, if a family tells a story over time, it can be viewed as true. This applies to military organizations. People feel comfortable saying things like, “That was in the past”, “They don’t want to work hard” or “They got that job because they’re black”. Over time these stories can be shared in any workplace, which has the potential to cause animosity between whites and minorities. Taking the stance of a professional organization would be much more fitting. A professional organization will have rules and a set of core values to abide by which can negate any negative attitudes and behaviors. Along the same lines “White ignorance” is also utilized in the color-blind racism spectrum. In a civilized world, people will likely choose knowledge over ignorance. However, white ignorance is often aggressive, militant, and resistant to enlightenment. Moreover, it takes more conscious effort to put on the “white ignorance” mask when the world produces enough evidence of