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7."I DID NOT GET THAT JOB BECAUSE OFA BLACK MAN..."

The Story Lines and Testimonies of Color-Blind RacismEDUARDO BONILLA-SILVA, AMANDA LEWIS, AND DAVID G. EN/]BRICK

Storytelling is how we make sense of the world and the things that happen to us. Some storiesmake us feel better or are told to make other people feel better. One of the stories white peoplecan tell themselves now is that they personally are not racists. As this article shows, they tell thisstory in a number of ways-by comparing themselves to others, by distancing themselves fromAmerica's racist history, and by claiming an anti-white racism exists. These stories are told bypeopie who may truly be progressive, decent people trying to navigate a racial divide they themselves did not make. Nonetheless, how do these stories reinforce that race line?

fftorytelling is central to communication.#According to Barthes (1977:79), "Narrative ispresent in every age, in every place, in every soci-ety; it begins with the very history of mankind andthere nowhere is nor has been a people withouta narrative." 1b a large degree, communication isabout telling stories. We tell stories to our spouses,children, friends, and coworkers. Through storieswe present and represent ourselves to the world.ln short, we tell stories and these stories, in turn,make us (Somers, 1994).

In this article we examine the dominant racialstories of the post-civil-rights era. Because all sto-ries are told within particular ideological forma-tions, it is important to highlight their relationship

to ideologies. We define racinl ideology as Lhe brttadracial frameworhs, or "grirls," that racial groups useto make sense of the world, to decide u'hat is right orwrong, true or false, important or unimportant. Andgiven that all societies are structured in dominance,the frameworks of the rulers (whether men, thebourgeoisie, or whites) are more likely to crystal-lize as "common sense" (van Dijk, 1999). EduardoBonilla-Silva (2003a,b) has operationalized thenotion of racial ideology as an interpretive reper-toire consisting of frames, style, and racial stories.'One sign that an ideology has gained dominanceis that its central logic has come to be perceived as"common sense," so that actors in different posi-tions and in different contexts deploy similar kinds

Excerpted from Eduardo llonilla-Silva, Amanda Lewis, and David G. ErnbrickMarr': 'I'he Story Lines arrd Testimonies of Color-Blind Racism," Sociologicalnotes have been renumbered and edited.

, "'l Did Not Cet that lob Because of a RlackFontm 19 (2009): 555-810. References and69


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7O R^ctAr. t'ntNKrNcof narratives to explain social reality. Such racialstories can then be understood as part of the con-temporary dominant racial ideology as it is mani-fested in evelyday life (l.ewis, 2003).

. . . We define story lines as the socially shared talesthat incorporate a common scheme and wording. Theseracial story lines resemble legends or fables because,unlike testimonies (see below), they are most oftenbased on impersonal, generic arguments with littlenarrative content-they are readily available, ideo-logical, "ofcourse" narratives that actors draw on inexplaining personal or collective social realities. Instory lines, characters are likely to be underdevel-oped and are usually social types (e.g., the "blackman" in statements such as "My best friend lost ajob to a black man" or the "welfare queen" in "poorblack women are welfare queens").2 "The ideologi-cal nature of such story lines is revealed by the simi-lar schemata and wording used in their telling (e.g.,"the past is the past"), and by their use in a rangeof locations by a wide variety of actors for similarends."

We proceed as follows. First, we describe the the-ory and the racial context behind our analysis. Thenwe describe the data and methods for this study.Next we analyze the dominant story lines of color-blind racism.3 Then, for comparative purposes, webriefly discuss how these stories affect white racialprogressives and blacks. We conclude with a discus-sion ofthe ideological role ofracial stories.THEORY AND RACIAL CONTEXT FOR THEANALYSIS OF RACIAL STORIESAlthough racism often involves prejudice, anripa-thy, and irrationality, most researchers now concedethat it has a material and, therefore, rational founda-tion (Bonilla-Silva, 1997; Feagin, 2000; Fredrickson,2002). Racism springs not from the hearts of "raoists," but from the fact that dominant actors in aracialized social system receive benefits at all levels(political, economic, social, and even psychological),whereas subordinate actors do not (Bonilla-Silva,1997). Racial outcomes then are not the product

of individual "racists" but of the crystallization ofracial domination into a racial structure: a networkof racialized practices and relations that shapes thelife chances of the various races at all levels. Hence,domination in hegemonic racial orders such as oursis produced by the collective normal actioirs of allactors rather than by the behavior of a few "racists"(on hegemonic domination, see Omi and Winant,Lee4).

The implications of this understanding of rac-ism for our analysis are that the frameworks, affec-tive dispositions (which range from sympathy toapathy and animosity), and stories that actors useor exhibit tend to correspond to their systemic loca-tion-actors at the top of a racial order tend to dis-play views, attitudes, and stories that help maintaintheir privilege, whereas actors at the bottom aremore likely to exhibit oppositional views, attitudes,and counternarratives.But racialized social systems are not fixed, andneither are the ideologies that accompany them.For instance, the racial structure of the UnitedStates underwent a tremendous transformation inthe 1960s and 1970s (Bloom, 1987). Demographic(urbanization of blacks), political (developmenrof minority organizations), and economic factors(industrialization) in combination with organized(civil rights movement) and "spontaneous" chal-lenges (race riots) to the Jim Crow order led to thedevelopment of whatvarious authors label the "newracism" (Brooks, 1990; Smith, 1995). According toBonilla-Silva and Lewis (1999:56), the elemenrsthat make up this new racial structure are "(1) theincreasingly covert nature of racial discourse andpractices; (2) the avoidance of racial terminologyand the ever growing claim by whites that theyexperience 'reverse racism'; the elaboration of aracial agenda over political matters that eschewsdirect racial references; (4) the invisibility of mostmechanisms to reproduce racial inequality; andfinally, (5) the rearticulation of a number of racialpractices characteristic of the lim Crow period ofrace relations."


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...With the emergence of a new normative cli-mate on racial matters, old-fashioned racial viewssubstantially receded (Schuman, 1997). Hencetoday few whites subscribe to the classical ideasof Jim Crowism, and the vast majority agrees withthe principles of racial equality and equal oppor-tunity (Schuman, 1997). However, except for asmall and decreasing number of scholars (Lipset,1996; Sniderman and Carmines, 1997), most ana-lysts argue that these changes do not signify the"end of racism" (D'Souza, 1995). Instead, the newconsensus among survey researchers is that racialprejudice has gone underground or is expressed ina "subtle" (Pettigrew and Martin, 1987), "modern"(McConahay, 1986), or "symbolic" way (Kinder andSanders, 1996) or as "laissez-faire racism" (Boboet al., 1997). Kinder and Sanders' (1996:106) cap-ture the essence of the new prejudice in the follow-ing passage:

A new form of prejudice has come to prominence,one that is preoccupied with matters of moral char-acter, informed by the virtues associated with thetraditions of individualism. At its center are thecontentions that blacks do not try hard enough toovercome the difficulties they face and that theytake what they have not earned. Today, we say,prejudice is expressed in the language of Americanindividualism.Elsewhere Bonilla-Silva (2003a) has labeled the

racial ideology that glues the post-civil rights racialstructure as "color-blind racism" (Bonilla-Silva,2003a). He contends that the main frames of thisideology are the denial of the centrality of discrim-ination ("Discrimination ended in the sixties "),the abstract extension of liberal principles to racialmatters ("1 am all for equal opportunity; that's whyI oppose affirmative action"), the naturalizationof racial matters ("Residential segregation is nat-ural... "), and the cultural explanation of minori-ties' standing ("Mexicans are poorer because theylack the motivation to succeed"). But ideologies arenot just about ideas (see above). To have salience

"I Did Not Get thdt lob Because of a Black Man 71and currency, ideologies must produce narrativesthat explain the world in ways that make sense topeople, that convey its maior frames; these storiesare then the conveyor belfs that transport the newracial frames.

...The subtle, "now you see it, now you don't"character of contemporary racial practices ismatched by the apparent nonracialism of color-blind racism. And, as we will try to demonstrate,racial stories fit color-blind racism, as they do notrely on traditional racist discourse to support theracial status quo.DATA AND METHODSThe data for the analysis comes from two projectson racial attitudes: the 1997 Survey of CollegeStudents Social Attitudes and the 1998 DetroitAreaStudy (DAS)....

Since our goal is to examine the dominant racialstories, we rely almost exclusively on the interviewdata. The stories we draw upon emerged mostlyspontaneously in discussions on race-related issuessuch as affirmative action, residential and schoolsegregation, interracial friendship, and interra-cial marriage. Respondents inserted them to rein-force points, underscore the salience of an issue,or as digressions in the middle of racially sensitivediscussions.

The interviews for these two studies were race-matched, followed a structured interview protocol,were conducted in respondents' homes or in neutralsites, and lasted between 45 minutes and 2 hours.After the interviews were completed, project assis-tants transcribed the recorded material verbatim(i.e., included nonlexicals/ pauses, etc.). However,to improve the readability of the quotations, wehave edited them in this paper. When ail the mate-rial was transcribed, one ofthe authors read ail theinterviews to extract common themes and patterns.At that stage, the same author and project assistantsperformed a basic content analysis to locate all theinstances where respondents inserted these racialstories.


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72 R.\al.\L llltNKtNLl

Although all samples have limitations (ours, forexample, are not "natural" samples of "speech acts"and do not include as many blacks as we would haveliked), ours have advantages over most of thoseused by qualitative researchers on racial matters.First, our samples are systematic (randomly selectedsubjects from those who participated in surveys).Second, one of the survey samples has a bias towardracial tolerance (the students' sample), but theother is a random sample. Third, the age, gender,and regional representation in these samples allowus to be confident that the findings are not peculiarto one subpopulation. Lastly, our subsamples forthe interviews (representing 10% of students in thesurvey and 2lo/o of the DAS respondents) as well asthe 134 total respondents interviewed are large byqualitative standards. Therefore, we beiieve that thedata for this study allows us to gain insight into thekind of dominant stories that whites deploy whiletalking about racial matters.4THE STORY LINES OF COLOR-BLINDRACISMIf racial stories were immutable, they would not beuseful tools to defend the racial order (lackman,1994). Thus, racial stories are intricately connectedto specific historical moments and hence changeaccordingly (Hall, 1990; Omi and Winant, 1994).For example, during the Jim Crow era, the myth ofthe black rapist became a powerful story line thatcould be invoked to keep blacks, particularly blackmen, "in their place" (Clinton, 1982; Hill-Collins,1990). Today new story lines have emerged to keepblacks in their new (but still subordinate) place(Crenshaw, 1997). The most common story lines weidentified were "The past is the past"; "I did not ownslaves"; "lf (other ethnic groups such as Italians orlews) made it, how come blacks have not?"; and "ldid not get a (job or promotion) because of a blackman." Although some of these story lines are inter-related (e.g., "The past is rhe pasr" and "l didn't ownany slaves" appeared often together), we discusseach one separately.

"THE PAsr ls rHE pAsr"The core of this story line is the idea that we mustput our racist past behind us and that affirmativeaction programs do exactly the opposite by keep-ing the racial flame alive. Moreover, as the storyline goes, these policies are particularly problem-atic because they attempt to address a past harmdone against minorities by harming whites today,This story line was used by more than 50% of col-lege students (21141) and by most DAS respondents,usually in discussions of race-targeted programsfor blacks. A perfect example of how respondenrsused this story line is provided by Emily, a studentat South tlniversity (SU), who told the story line inan exchange with the interviewer over the meaningof affirmative action.

I have, I just have a problem with the discrimina-tion, you're gonna discriminate against a group andwhat happened in the past is horrible and it shouldnever happen again, but I also think that to moveforward you have to let go of the past and let go ofwhat happened um, you know? And it should reallystart equaling out'cause I feel that some o{, some ofit will go too far and it's swing the other way. Onegroup is going to be discriminated against, I don't, Idon't believe in that. i don't think one group shouldhave an advantage over another regardless of whathappened in the past.Clear in Emily's logic is the idea thar "rwowrongs don't make a right." Thus, to compensate

blacks for a history of white advantage or blackoppresion would involve unjustified, unfair advan-tage today. Note this view does not involve a denialofpast injustice. Instead, it regards the past as unre-lated or irrelevant to current realities. Hence, pro-grams designed to redress the "horrible" pasr areconstructed as "reverse discrimination."Almost all DAS respondents resorted to a ver-sion of this story line to express their displeasurewith programs they believe benefit blacks solelybecause oftheir race. However, these older respon-dents were more likely to use the story line while


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venting lots of anger. lohn Il, for instance, a retiredarchitect and homebuilder- in his late sixties, used aversion of the story line in his response to the ques-tion on reparations.

Not a nickel, not a nickel I thir-rk that's ridiculous lthink that's a great way to go for the black vote Btrt Ithink that's a ridiculous assumption, because thosethat say we should Pay them because they wereslaves back in the past and yet, how often do youhear about the people who were whites that wereslaves and the white that were, ah Boy, we shouldget reparations, tbe Irish should get reparationsfrom the Lnglish...

lohn's statement suggests not only that it is "ridicu-lous" to give blacks even "a nickel" in compensatioufor a history of slavery, but that blacks have no spe-cial claim with regard to poor treatment ("the Irishshould get reParations fron the English")'

But what is ideological about this story? Is it nottrue that "the past is the past"? First, whether whitesinserted this story line or not, most interpreted thepast as slavery even when in some questions we leftit open (e.g., questions regarding the "history ofoppression") or specified that we were referring to"slavery andJ\m Crow." Since Jim Crow died slowlyin the country (and lasted well into the 1960s to1970s), the relerence to a remote past ignores therelatively recent overt forms of racial oppressionthat have impedecl black progless. Second, suchstories effectively "erase" the limiting effects ofhistoric discrimination on the ability of minoritiesand blacks to accumulate wealth at the same rate aswhites. According to Oliver and Shapiro (1995), the"accumulation of disadvantages" has "sedimented"blacks economically so that even if ali forms of eco-nomic discrimination that blacks face ended today,they would not catch up with whites for severalhundred years. Third, the "reverse discrimination"element in this story line is central to whites as arationale for their opposition to all race-based com-pensatory programs. This story line then does no1reflect whites' ignorance of racial history and racial

''l Di,/ Noi Cet lhd Iob |lr,,tuse ol n Rl,tch Man

facts. More than anything else, it provides a posr-tive and even moral standpoint tbr them to explainwhy certain social programs are unnecessary andprobiematic."r DrDN'T owN ANY sLAVEs"This story iine appeared often in coniunction withthe stoly line of "The past is the past," althoughit was deployed somewhat less frequently-it wasused by about a quarter of the college students(9/al) and a third of DAS respondents As withthe previous story line, this one usually appearedin discussior-rs of affirmative action (see Wellman,1997). The core of this story line is the notion thatpresent Senerations are not responsible for the il1sof slavery. For instance, Lynn, a Midwest University(MLI) student, used this story line to explain heropposition to the idea of a hypothetical companyhiring a black rather than a white iob applicantbecause the company had discriminated againstblacks in the Past.

I think I would, I would, I'd disagree, I think lmean, yeah, t think I'd disagree because, I mean,even though it's kinda what affirmative action-well, it's not really, because I don't think like rnygeneration should have to be punished real harshlyfor the things that our ancestors did. 'The story line allowed Lynn to state safely

(albeit quite hesitantly) her concerns about affir'ma-tive action, even thoLrgh she had stated before thatshe supported the program. Again we can see theideological connection between racial story lineswhen l.ynn responds to evidence of past discrim-ination manifested in a company's current racialprofile (described as 97o/o white) by suSSesting sheshouid not be punished for the actions of her ances-tors-essentially saying, " Ihe past is the past " Eventhough the question here does not refer to slaverybut suggests concrete evidence for discriminatorypractices by the company in the not-too-distantpast, the story line provides a readily available iusti-Iication lor lacl< olaction.


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74 RACr,{l..l.tirNl{iN.l

Some DAS respondents deployed this story lineto answer a question on whether the governmentshould spend money on blacks, behalfio compen_sate for past discrimination. For example, Dina, anemployment manager for an advertising agency inher early thirties, said,No, and I have to say that I,m pretty supportive ofanything to help people, but I don,t know why thatslavery thing has a_l,ve got a chip on my shoulderabout that. Ir,s like it happened so long ago, andyou've got these sixteen_year_old kids.uyi.rg;W"ll, Ideserve [reparations] because my great, great, grand_daddy was a slave,,, Well, you know what, it doesn taffect you. Me, as [a] whire person, I had nothing todo with slavery. you, as a black person, you neverexperienced it. It was so long ago I just don,t see howthat pertains to what,s happening to the race toda,so rhat's one rhing thar I,m just like ,,God, shut upl,,

As exemplified in Dinat statement, this story lineinvolves more than a denial of personal responsibil_ity for historical discrimination. The claim is in factmuch broader: that historical discrimination does notdisadvantage blacks today. Therefore, this story con_veys the notion that the current social order i, .u."_neutral and based on individual merit and effort...."lF JEWs, trAL|ANs, AND lRlsH HAVEMADE IT, HOW COME BLACKS HAVE NOT?"Another popular story line of the post_civil rightsera is "lf Jews, Italians, and Irish (or other ethnicgroups) have made it, how come blacks have not?,,This story is used to suggest that because othergroups who experienced discrimination are doingwell today, the predicament of blacks,must be theirown doing. Although fewer respondents explicitlydeployed this story in the interviews, a ,igr_rifi.a.rtpercentage agreed with a survey question on thismatter (6o0/o of DAS respondents and 350/o of col-lege students). An example of how whites used thisstory is provided by Kim, a student at StI, who usedit to explain why she does not favor governmentintervention on minorities' behalf.

No. I rhink rhat a lot of bad things happened to alot of people, but you can,t sit there and dwell onrhar. I mean, like the Jewish people, look what hap_pened to them. Do you hear them sitting aroundcomplaining about, it and attributing anyrhing badthat happens to them? I,ve never heard anyone say,"Oh, it's because I,m iewisl-r.,,And i know it,s a littledifferent because a black, I mean, you can,t really,a lot of-you can,t really tell on the outside a lot oftimes, but they don,t wallow in what happened tothem a long time ago. It was a horrible thing I admit,but I think that you need to move on urrd t.y to putthat behind you.Flere, this story line is used to question blacks,claims to harm. It also presents a moral racial tale:the way to deal with hard times is to work hard andnot to "wallow" in what happened ,,a long rime ago,,which, according to the story, is presumably whatother racial and ethnic groups have done to moveup in this country.An example of how DAS respondents used thisstory line comes from Henrietta, a transvestiteschoolteacher in his fifties, who inserted the storyto answer a question on compensatory governmentspending on blacks' behalf.

As a person who was once reversed discriminatedagainst, I would have to say no. Because the gov-ernment does not need programs if they, if peoplewould be motivated to bring themselves out of thepoverty level. Ah. .. when we talk about certain pro-grams, when the lrish came over, when the Italians,the Polish, and the East European Jews, thev allwere immigrants who lived in terr.ible conclitions,who worked in terrible conditions too. But they hadone thing in common; they all knew that educationwas rhe way our of that poverry. And they did it. I,mnot saying the blacks were brought over here maybenot willingly, but if they realize educarion,s the key,that's it. And that,s based on individuality.

What is ideological about this story? Have notIews, Irish, and other ethnic groups moved up andeven assimilated in America? The problem is that


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this story line equates the experiences of immiSrantgroups with those of involuntary "immigrants"(enslaved Africans, etc.). But as Stephen Steinbergpointed out some time ago, most immigrant groupswere able to get a foothold in certain economicniches or used resources such as an education orsmall amounts of capital to achieve social mobility."ln contrast, racial minorities were for the most partrelegated to the preindustrial sectors of the nationaleconomy and, until the flow of immigration wascut off by the First World War, were denied accessto the industrial fobs that lured tens of millions ofimmigrants. All groups started at the bottom, but asBlauner points out, 'the bottom' has by no meansbeen the same for all groups" (Steinberg, 1989:101).Thus, the comparison in this story line is not appro-priate, as the historical experiences and opPortuni-ties of the groups in question are vastly different"r DtD Nor cET A JoB (oR A PRoMorloNoR wAs ADMITTED TO A COLLEGE)BECAUSE OF A BLACK MAN,,The core of this story is the idea that less qualifiedminorities (mostly referring to blacks, althoughoccasionally to women) are getting into collegeor taking iobs that more qualified whites deserve.However, as we will illustrate, this story does notinvolve concrete experience or knowledge andrequires little evidence; the mere presence of aminority person in a particular setting allows whitesto ignore the possibility that they are not qualifiedfor a job, a promotion, or admission to a college (fora similar point, see Goldfield, 1997, and Bobo andSuh, 2000). And this story line, although narratedas personal experience, is quite often about dis-tantly removed friends, friends of friends, or neigh-bors and lacks the spontaneity and vividness of atestimonY.

This story line was most often used in discus-sions about affirmative action or race-based poii-cies. Almost a quarter of the students (10/a1) andmore than a third of DAS respondents used the

"l llid Nor Cer thar lob Because of a Blnck Manstory line, "l did not get that fob because of a blackman." For instance, Bob, a student at SU, opposedproviding unique opportunities to minorities to beadmitted into un iversities:

I had a friend, he wasn't-l don't like him that much,I think it's my brother's friend, a good friend of mybrother's, who didn't get into law school here, andhe knows for a fact that other students less quali-fied than him did. And that really-and he was con-sidering a lawsuit against the school. But for somereason, he didn't. I'Ie had better grades, better LSATbetter everything, and he....Other people got in upabove him, I don't care who it is, if it's Eskimo, orAustralian, or what it is, you should have the bestperson there.This is a classic example of this story line. Bob's

brother has a friend who knows " for afact" that lessqualified minority appiicants were admitted into alaw school instead of him. For Bob, this is a mat-ter ofprinciple: "the best person (should be) there"whether "it's Eskimo, or Australian."

Darren, a bus driver in his late forties (and otherDAS respondents like him), vented lots of animos-ity toward blacks in his answer to a question onaffirmative action. In this context, he inserted thestory line to affirm his belief that he had been thevictim of reverse discrimination.5

No, other than I have applied at jobs and beenturned down because I was white. Now, I hdue noth-ing against the black person [if he] was quaiifiedbetter than I was. But when the guy comes into theinterview, and I'm off on the side and I can hearthem talking, and he can't even speak English, hedoesn't know how to read a map, and they're gonnamake him a bus driver and hire him over me. l'vebeen doing bus driving offand on since 1973, and Ikltow the guy well enough that [l knowl he's a lousydriver. I know why he got the job, and I don't thinkthat's fair.

Although Darren's story seems like a testimony, ithas the scheme of this story line. He believes he was


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76 RA(ttAL llllNI(lN(;

passed over for a iob by a bus company (presum-ably the one he currently works for) because he iswhite. His facts come from what he overheard frornan interview with a black applicant. Darren doesnot provide data on his drivir-rg record or the recordof the black bus driver.Complex processes involving multiple appli-cants are simplilied in such stories so that twoindividuals abstracted from their social contextare depicted as goit'lg head-to-head in a competi-tion of merit (Wise, 2004). Accordring to the stortrace triumphs over merit, and a specific blackcandidate is imagined as the beneficiary whodisplaced a specific, deserving white candidate'Collectively this story line is important becatrse itmakes the case that whites ale the real victims ofracial discrimination (Feagin and Vera, 1995; Fineand Weis, 1998) and supports the argument thatcolor-blind decision making is the only fair wayto ploceed.COUNTERNARRATIVES: EXAMPLES OFWHITE RACIAL PROGRESSIVES AND BLACKSAre all whites immersed in color-blind racism? Dothey all buy into the racial stories we documentedhereS Do blacks rely on this ideology and its sto-ries, too? Analysis of the interviews revealed thatalthough most whites ale "color-blind," 15% of thecollege students and 12o/o of the DAS lespondentswere "racial progressives" who were significantlyless likely to invoke these stories.t'T'he analysis alsorevealed that color-blind racism and its stories hada relatively small impact on blacks (but see below).lnstead, white racial progressives and blacks weremore likely to provide argllments and narrativesasainst. the dominant frames and racial stories ofcolor-blind racism.

For example, Beth, a student at WU, said in ref-erence to a white male who opposed affirmativeaction, "Being a white male I guess you don't real-ize [sicl... [shit] unless it's shoved inyourface." Shealso told the following story about her interactionwith this student:

I saicl, "Well, if you think it's a quota system, weliyou're wrong" and thar maybe it's hard to seewhat these people go through all their life and, Irnean-Me too, being female, what you go through,iust the slight discrimination here and there, thislike common slur, you don't understand that Youjust think it's a harmless joke, but it's not. It buildsup. FIe was just not getting it.

Beth understood that discrimination affects the lifechances of minolities and even expressed suppoltfor programs that compensate minorities for pa$discrimination because, she said, "It's hard to staltwhen you have hit rock bottom, it's hard to climbback up."

Judy, a college professor of nursing in her for-ties, realized discrimination is still important anddescribed various examples of the old and newstyles of discrimination. For example, she saidthat a black man told her that he was not srvedat a local hospital because he was black. She alsomentioned that many blacks are used as guinea pigsbecause they are black and poor. Finally, she saidthat a biack woman toid her that when she shopsin the suburbs, "she notices that people won't giveher change in her hand" because they are "fearfulof her, and that bugs hel to death." )udy, like manyracial progressives, rtsed her experience as a womanto understand blacks' plight.? For instance, whileexplaining how the few blacks that move up in soci-ety "feel always on display," she connected it to herexperiences as a woman:

It's kind of like women, you know, have to be thatmuch better just because of various conclitions andpractices tbat occur. So in that way I can under-stand it, because it's difficult being a woman in thissociety. It is planned, it's organized by men. It's setup for them, and we've had to struggle to becomeequal. It's iust that way for people of color'Last is Kay, an Mtl student, who said that hel par-

ents were displeased that she had a black boyfriend:"Not between us, but my parents at first didn't approveof it really. Like my parents always told me that I


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"I Did Not Get that Job Because of a Black Man 77

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are "fearfullike manYas a womanwhile

up in soci-it to her

to be thatat'rdI can under-

in thismen. It's set

to become

that her Par-boyfriend:aPProveme that I

could be friends with black people' but I couldn't datethem. But after a while, they fust learned that theywere gonna have to accept it'" Kay's story does not fitthe te"stimonies discussed above that we classified asdealing with someone close who is racist' For exam-pte, stt". ala not use this story to exonerate herself orh., Our.r-t , from the influence of racism ("they iustlearned they were Sonna have to accept it")'

An example of the counterarguments providedby blacks comes from Edward' an unemployed manin ni, fifti.r, who said the following about afflrma-tive action:

I'd say that I would have to be for affirmative actionsimply because you still have ignorant people Someof these ignorant people are in control and have alittle more power than I'd like to think they shouldhave... to prevent other people from having oppor-tunities [so] that " they can't have growth anddevelopment. Affirmative Action is a means and [a]nethod. Then it's like a key when you got a lockeddoor. You've got to have it'

When asked, "What would you say to those whosay affirmative action is unfair to whites?"' he,erponded, "l tell them that'What do you call fair3'If you got everything, it's kind of like saying you areupr., i..urlr" you got ice cream and you don't havea cone. Then put it in a bowl' you already got every-thing. Don't worrY about it'"

Biacks also believed that discrimination is animportant reason for their present status and pro-vijed oppositional testimonies as evidence Forexample,'lyrone, an unemployed man in his for-ties, gave the following testimony in his answer to aquestion on discrimi nation:

level even those who oppose it For an ideology tobecome dominant, whether based on class' gender'or race, it must have some salience for those on allrungs of the social la


10/14

78 RACtAi. l.llNi{tNC

researchers have used in the past.s .Ihe racial sto_ries we found among these respondents were thusnot the products of a fishing expedition for. ,,racists,,or of tendentious questions intended to make ourrespondents answer in a particular wav.Second, some analysts ,tisagree about ourinterpretation of the ideological function of thesestories.e However, such disagreement does not chal_lenge our claim about the salience of these storiesin whites' contemporary imaginary. The fact thatthe racial stories we identified occurred so regu_larly in our diverse sarnple suggests that such storiesare being repeatecl throughout society. Such wide_spread repetition is unlikely unless rhose who tellthem believe that they reflect some truth about theway the social world works. The fact that old andyoung alike, working-class and middle_class, andmale and female respondents alj told these storiesand told them so similarly is evidence that thev arecollectiu e n arratives.Third, some analysts may believe that our goalis to label all whites racist. We went to great lengthsto show that although most whites accept these sto-ries as the "truth " about racial matters in America, asegment of the white conmunity (and most blacks)do not accept these stories and have developedincipient counternarratives. f'heoretically and sub-stantively speaking, as we have argued in previouswork (Bonilla-Silva, t997, 2OOt, 2003a), the issueis not one of "good,, versus ,,bad,, or ,,educated,,versus "ignor-ant, whites, but one of documentingthe growth of a new racial logic that helps preserveracial inequality. 'lherefore, our data ana ar-,atyrl,suggest not that there are more (or less) ,,racists,, ormore or less "racism,, than in the past, but that a setof racial stories has emerged and is being deployedby whites from a wide range of social balkgroundsand from a variety ofgeographic locations.Finally, some may argue that we are present_ing white respondents in a monolithic fashion. .tbthis potential charge we say that our respondents,like all humans, exhibit contradictions. ._fhus, someof the respondents who told the dominant racial

stories also had progressive views on specific issua(for example, they supported school integratiolor busing, or approved of interraciat malriage)Similarly, although racial progressives and blacksexhibited radically different views from the major.ity of whites, a few used some of the dominant racialstories. this fact should not surprise students 0lracial attitudes in the United States (e.g., Schuman,1997) who have documented the ambivalent viewsof whites on racial matters, or students of ideologyin general, who have pointed out the contested andalways unfinished narure of icleoiogy (Billig et al,lgBB). Yet, contradictions in attitudes, ideologlcaipositions, as well as behavior do not detract fromthe fact that all actors end up stating and takingpositions on social issues (in our case, racial issue$.And these contradictions allow us too, as analystsand policy makers, to think about ways to devisepolitical arguments, policies, and politics for effe+ing social change.CONCLUSIONThe four story lines we analyzed in this article arepowerful tools that help most whites maintaina color-blind sense of self and, at the same time,to reinforce views that help reproduce the cur-rent racial order. For example, if whites opposeaffirmative action or reparations, they can ,s" th."The past is the past,, or ,,1 did not own any slaves,,story line to bolster the apparent reasonableness

of their argument. If the issue involves accountingfor blacks' secondary status in this country, whitescan use the story line ,,lf (other ethnic groups suchas Italians or Jews) made it, ho* .om"tlacks havenot?" Finally, because the srory line ,,I did not get a(job or promotion) because of a black man,, seemspersonal-even though the facts in such storiestend to be secondhand and remoter_it can offerpowerful support to those opposing governmerrtprograms for mi norities.These story lines also allow many whites to ventdeep-seated feelings about racial matters (on rac_

ism and emotions, see Feagin, 2000). In case afier


11/14

"I DirJ Nor Get thor' Job tsecause of a Black Man

issuesintegrationmarriage).

and blacksthe maior-

racialstudents ofSchuman,views

of ideologYcontested and(Billig et al.,

ideologicaldetract from

and takingracial issues).

as analYststo devisefor effect-

this article aremaintainsame time,the cur-

whites oPPosecan use theanY slaves"

reasonablenessaccountingwhitesgrouPs suchblacks have"l did not get aman" seemsin such storiescan offerSovernment

whites to vent(on rac-In case after

case,whitesevincedangeraboutwhattheyinterpretRacialnarratives,however'potentiallydofaras blacks, whining (,1 didn,t own any ,iu.r.., u'rJl more than help whites to understand the worlddo not unaerstand why they keep asking for things in particular ways: they also justify current

racial

when slavery ended zo6 hu r-rdredgotltlamnnd y"o:r' inequality' For example' when trying to explainagol,,) or about not getti; into certain_iobs or uni- why blacks are at the bottom of society' these sto-versities (,,A friend or _ii" was not admitted into ,i"s

ar" used to sllggest that peopre's station in lifeSLI Law school, but many un4 ualifiedblacks students depends on abilitf and harcl work' which explainswere, and that's r.urong"). The story lines then serve blacks'status as a result of their

own shortcomtngswhitesasle8itimateconduitsforexpressinli^,-",(I{ochschi1d,1995;WetherellandPotter,lgg2).ity ancl resentment toward Tl":"1'":,]::*' These racial narratives not only attempt

to explainthese story lines offer a specific i,-'t",p,"totio,-,'-of larger raciai realities but

also have the capacity tocontemporary ,u.iut ,.I1utt"rs that favors *i'ri ., ur'ra 'hJpt "u"'yday behavior and interactions

For

thecurrentracialorder:,,Thepastisthepast,weexample,recentwolkonthebehaviorofwhitesneverbenefitedfromthePast,everyonehaditbadtowardstudentsofcoloroncoliegecampuses(whoand, in fact, and we are ;; real vicrims or ai..ri-i- often are imagined to be the *ttl]"-llt of unfairnationtoday,,(Doane,rcgz;cuttuel-,er,i995).advantage)demonstratestheperniciousimpactof

These r.acial *ori.r-ur" "ideological" because such stories (Feagin et al ' 1996; Lewis etai ' 2000;

they are parr of tft" po't-t*il rights color-blind Sololzanoetal'' 2000)'

,,common sense.,, They represent the worl. i" ";-;;; lt is the iob of social analysts and activists alikecourse,,manner-asif;;"r"storiesareself-evident. to break the conventionality and commonsenseAlthough such stories, ", -" n""" norecl, are ,il;; character of these stories' we have

provided evidenceharddata,misrepresenttheimportanceofdiscrimi-forawayoutofthei


12/14

r80

and Sanders' "symbolic racism," etc.). However, we use the term color-biind racism because itfits better how whites talk about race in the post-civil rights era. More important, this conceptis anchored in different theoretical and methodological traditions. Rather than basing thisperspective on whites' "attitudes," we argue this viewpoint represents a new ideological catformation and use textual (rather than survey) data to document it (see Bonilla-Silva, 2003b).4. No one has systematic data on private, nonnormative interactions on race among whites ornonwhites. The available (unsystematic) data suggest that whites' private race talk is muchmore racial in tone and content (see Graham, 1995, and, particularlt Myers, 2003).5. Despite the regularity with which this story line is deployed, the number of actual cases filedby whites as "reverse discrimination" before the LDOC is quite small, and the great majorityof them are dismissed as bogus (Wicker, 1996).6. We classified as racial progressives respondents who supported affirmative action, interra-cial marriage, and recognized the significance of discrimination in the United States. Whenrespondents exhibited reservations on one of these issues, we searched for other elementsdisclosed in the interview to help us classify these respondents (e.g., whether they had mean-ingful relationships with minorities or the degree of racial progressiveness on other race-related issues discussed in the interviews).7. Our analysis revealed that white racial progressives were significantly more likely to be work-ing-class women. For a discussion, see Bonilla-Silva (2003b: chap. 6).B. The instruments for the 1998 DAS survey are available from the Detroit Area Study at the

lh-riversity of Michigan. The instruments for the other survey can be obtained from E,duardoBonilla-Silva.9. Charles Murray (1984), Hernstein and Murray (1994), D'Souza (1995), and orhers have con-cluded that whites' "common sense" on minorities (the idea that minorities arelazy, not toosmart/ see racism in everything, etc.) is fundamentally right. Liberal social analysts haveread whites' contemporary views as expressions of racial ambivalence (Schuman, 1997).10. We are trying to convey here the positive role of ideology. As Althusser suggested a long timeago, the content of an ideology may be false (misrepresent real social relations), but thatideology shapes the actions and behavior ofpeople and is thus real because ideology "inter,pellates" individuals as subiects (in our case, as "racial subjects") from the day they are born(Althusser, 7977. Ott the notion of "racial subjects," see Goldberg, 1993).

REFERENCESAlthusser, Louis. 1977. Posiciones Q96a4975). Mexico City, Mexico: Crijalbo.Barthes, Roland. 7977. Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratiues. London: Fontana.Billig, Michael, Condor, S., and Edwards, D. 1988. Ideological Diletnmas: A Social Psychology of

Eu eryd ay'I'hinking. London : Sage.Bloom, Jack M. 1987. Class, Race, and the Ciuil Rights Mouemenr. Bloomington: Indiana Lh-riversityPress.

Bobo, I-awrence, |amews R. Kluegel, and Ryan Smith. 1997. "Laissez-faire racism:1'he clystalliza-tionofakinder,gentler,antiblackideology."InStevenA. luchandJackMartin (eds.),RacialAttitudes in the 1990s: Continuity and Change: 1.5-42. Westport, CT: praeger.Bobo, Lawrence, and Susan Suh. 2000. "surveying racial discrimination: Analyses from a mul-tiethnic labor market." In Lawrence Bobo, Melvin L. oliver, Iames H. Johnson, a1d AbelValenzuela, fr. (eds.), Prismatic Metropolis: Inequality in Los Angeles: 523-560. New York: Sage.


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itthiscator

muchfiled

Whenmean-

race-wor-k-at the

con-not too

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born

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AbelSage.

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"",::il:;^vid. 19e3. Racist curture:philosophy and the poritics of Mea,ing. London: Blackwell.

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New York: F{arper Collins Publishers'Hall, Stuart. 1990. ,,The whites of their eyes: Racisr ideologies and the media'" In Manuel Alvarado

and JohnThompso" (e i''1' 't" Meiila Reader: 110-l25 London: British Film lnstitute'Ilerrnestein, Richard J , and Charles A Murray' 1994' The Bell Curue New York: Free Press'Hill-Coliins, Patricia' 1990' Btack FeministThought' Boston: Llnwin llyman'Hochschild,JenniferL'lgg5.FacingUptotheAitericanDream.Princeton,NI:Pril-rcetonUniversityI".ul;t"t;, Mary R. 1994..rhe veruet Gloue. Berkeley and Los Angeres: University of californiao,"llill"",o R., and Lynn M. Sanders. rgg6.Diuidedby color: Raciarporitics andDemocraticldeals'

Chicago: Llniversity of Chicago Press'-Lewis,Amanda.2003.,,Everydayrace-making:Navigatingracialboundariesinschools.,,AmericanB ehauioral Scientist a7(3): 283 -305'


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Lewis, Amanda, Mark chesler, and Tyro'e Forman.2000. ,,rhe impact of coror_blind ideolo_ffiil;:ffil'.;l;B'r15,':'"0 relatio"s ut u p."ao-i,.'ui',ry*nrt. u'iversiry.,, rournat ofI-ipset, Seymour. 1996. American ExL:eptionalism. Newyork: W.W Norton.cConahay, John B. 1986. ,,Modern.acis,n, amb,;J; ;a,n" il.d"." racism scale.,, In Iohni.:-:[tj:#d.Samuel

L caerrner (eds-), prejurlirr, oi,rri*iii"n antt Racism:e1-i26. NewMurray, Charles A. 19g4. Losing Grountl New york: Basic Books.Myers' Kristen 2003 "white r'igr,,' n"pro;ucing.white sup."ma.y l.hrough casual Discourse.,,;:,H'tr";?:T Ti,illli;'u.,";"u-i't,,u (eds), white d,l ,n, continuing significance of"1.*i:l :l' and lJoward winant Tee4. Raciar Formation in the rJniterisrares. New york:Schuman, Ijoward. 1997. Racial Attitudes in tIJarvard University press. \merica: Tiends and Interpretations. Cambridge, MA:')"::::,;";i:,[1];,lLX"#:i:*:,j":?, lees Brack we,,tth,twhite weatth: A New perspectiue ont'tff;T::,,;";i":lt r'dward c' cu'mli'"'' 7ee7. Reaching Bevonrl Race.cambridge, MA: r{arvard

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JOURNALING OUESTIONWhen somcorre doesn't per _r i^h ^" r^^^_,-rriends. may encourar"',fl:: ll,l;""1j::ji;:j.'^'i": " u'h,:ot- that he or she reary wanted,using the "a btack -un-*o, the job,,u,*u.,'",,,iJ".lJil1'JiJ;" il:]|' ever heard anvone

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