I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Prophetic Christianity)

by Chanequa Walker-Barnes

An Impregnable Fortress. Color-blind racism is especially difficult to dispel because the four frames “form an impregnable yet elastic wall that barricades Whites from the United States’ racial reality.”42 The solidity of the wall “provide(s) whites a seemingly nonracial way of stating their racial views without appearing irrational or rabidly racist.”43 And the flexibility of the walls allows the discourse of racism to shift in response to discrepant information. Color-blind racism’s frames are pliable because they do not rely on absolutes (“All Blacks are . . . ” or “Discrimination ended in 1965”). Instead, color-blind racism gives some room for exceptions (“Not all Blacks are lazy, but most are”) and allows for a variety of ways of holding on to the frames—from crude and straightforward to gentle and indirect. . . . The pliability of the color-blind wall is further enhanced by the style of color blindness. For instance, if whites find themselves in a rhetorical bind, such as having disclosed a personal taste for whiteness or a dislike for blackness, they can always utter a disclaimer such as, “I am not prejudiced,” or “If I ever fall in love with a black person, the race thing will never be an obstacle for us getting together.” They can tiptoe around the most dangerous racial minefields because the stylistic elements of color blindness provide them the necessary tools to get in and out of almost any discussion.44 The flexibility of color-blind racism means that reliance...