Sociologists have recently begun to recognize the need to more deeply examine the mechanisms of contemporary colorblind racism, to move beyond frame identification and glean new insights. This is important because as racial dynamics evolve, so will the ideologies and discourses that surround them. This article considers how we might be able to untangle ideology, racism, discourse, and the material realities of our wider social systems. It also introduces the themes in this Special Issue that parse ideals from ideologies, that consider individual subjectivities as they emerge in different social contexts, and that examine strategies for grappling with the realities of racism. This allows us to trace the connections between colorblind ideology and racism more broadly, giving us traction to potentially use this knowledge to sharpen our resistance to racism.
In fact, the belief in “racial colorblindness” unites people who range from liberal to conservative and hardened racists to egalitarians, according to Philip Mazzocco, author of The Psychology of Racial Colorblindness: A Critical Review.
“There’s never been a racial ideology like colorblindness that unites such very different types of people,” said Mazzocco, who is an associate professor of psychology at The Ohio State University at Mansfield.
“Their beliefs are often wildly different. The only thing they all have in common is a general distaste for racial categories.”
In his book, Mazzocco outlines a new model of what it means to be racially colorblind in today’s society. He disentangles the different meanings and comes up with four categories of colorblindness: protectionist, egalitarian, antagonistic and visionary.
Mazzocco doesn’t believe that any type of racial colorblindness is good for society, although some of the four types are clearly more offensive than others. His model focuses on whites, but could be used for all races.