Beyond Color-blindness: (Re) Theorizing Racial Ideology

Abstract

The study of color-blind racial ideology has made a significant contribution to the understanding of contemporary racism through its elaboration of the dominant racial ideology—a worldview grounded in the claim that race no longer “matters” as an obstacle to success in a “postracial” United States. Despite, or perhaps as a result of this success, the study of color-blind racial ideology has in many ways become stagnant. Following a critique of the current state of theorizing color-blindness, I strive to lay the foundation for a broader framework for understanding racial ideology. In this article, I undertake three core tasks: first, to present a general framework for understanding racial ideologies as fluid and dynamic constructions that are linked to a racial system; second, to outline how color-blind racial ideology is evolving and adapting in response to political challenges and changing social conditions; and finally, to discuss challenges to the hegemony of color-blindness and to propose an agenda for research on the future direction of racial ideology.