- Mar 11, 2015
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I keep getting told by people here about how racism is in the Past. And Jim Crow apartheid is in the past.
Rising out of the ashes of Jim Crow racism was an attitude of Lasseiz-Faire racism. Lasseiz-Faire racism is sometimes described as the kinder form of racism as if there is such a thing. It is based on the Group Position Theory of racial prejudice that was developed by Herber Blumer in 1958. Blumer posits that racial prejudice is a result of group position. Of course that is at odds with the current claim by the American right of individualism, but that claim in my view is fake news. According to Blumer, “There are four basic types of feeling that seem to be always present in race prejudice in the dominant group. They are (1) a feeling of superiority, (2) a feeling that the subordinate race is intrinsically different and alien, (3) a feeling of proprietary claim to certain areas of privilege and advantage, and (4) a fear and suspicion that the subordinate race harbors designs on the prerogatives of the dominant race.”
Lasseiz-Faire racism focuses on 2 of the feelings Blumer describes,the feeling of proprietary claim to certain areas of privilege and advantages, and fear or suspicion that the “subordinate” race has designs on the perogatives of the “dominant race”. So as Jim Crow apartheid was being removed from it’s hold on white America the feelings of entitle, proprietary claims to privilege and the belief that other races wanted to have or held the same perogatives remained a part of the group belief in many white Americans.
Jim Crow ended, but whites still control most of the things necessary to survive and thrive in a capitalist system. Instead of looking at the demands blacks made and continue to make as efforts towards true democratic equality there were and are today, whites who look upon these efforts as “as threatening incursions on their interests and prerogatives” or infringements on their rights. As a response, we get Lasseiz ‘Faire racism. “ Laissez Faire Racism involves persistent negative stereotyping of African Americans, a tendency to blame blacks themselves for the black-white gap in socioeconomic standing, and resistance to meaningful policy efforts to ameliorate America's racist social conditions and institutions”
Lawrence Bobo, James R. Kluegel, Ryan A. Smith - LAISSEZ FAIRE RACISM: The Crystallization of a
'Kinder, Gentler' Anti-Black Ideology https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/bobo/files/laissez-faire.pdf
This is racism in the 21st Century.
"In short, a large number of white Americans have become comfortable with as much racial inequality and segregation as a putatively nondiscriminatory polity and free market economy can produce. Hence, the reproduction and, on some dimensions, the worsening of racial inequalities. These circumstances are rendered culturally palatable by the new ideology of Laissez Faire Racism."
Lawrence Bobo, James R. Kluegel, Ryan A. Smith - LAISSEZ FAIRE RACISM: The Crystallization of a
'Kinder, Gentler' Anti-Black Ideology
Lawrence Bobo, James R. Kluegel, Ryan A. Smith - LAISSEZ FAIRE RACISM: The Crystallization of a
'Kinder, Gentler' Anti-Black Ideology
Rising out of the ashes of Jim Crow racism was an attitude of Lasseiz-Faire racism. Lasseiz-Faire racism is sometimes described as the kinder form of racism as if there is such a thing. It is based on the Group Position Theory of racial prejudice that was developed by Herber Blumer in 1958. Blumer posits that racial prejudice is a result of group position. Of course that is at odds with the current claim by the American right of individualism, but that claim in my view is fake news. According to Blumer, “There are four basic types of feeling that seem to be always present in race prejudice in the dominant group. They are (1) a feeling of superiority, (2) a feeling that the subordinate race is intrinsically different and alien, (3) a feeling of proprietary claim to certain areas of privilege and advantage, and (4) a fear and suspicion that the subordinate race harbors designs on the prerogatives of the dominant race.”
Lasseiz-Faire racism focuses on 2 of the feelings Blumer describes,the feeling of proprietary claim to certain areas of privilege and advantages, and fear or suspicion that the “subordinate” race has designs on the perogatives of the “dominant race”. So as Jim Crow apartheid was being removed from it’s hold on white America the feelings of entitle, proprietary claims to privilege and the belief that other races wanted to have or held the same perogatives remained a part of the group belief in many white Americans.
Jim Crow ended, but whites still control most of the things necessary to survive and thrive in a capitalist system. Instead of looking at the demands blacks made and continue to make as efforts towards true democratic equality there were and are today, whites who look upon these efforts as “as threatening incursions on their interests and prerogatives” or infringements on their rights. As a response, we get Lasseiz ‘Faire racism. “ Laissez Faire Racism involves persistent negative stereotyping of African Americans, a tendency to blame blacks themselves for the black-white gap in socioeconomic standing, and resistance to meaningful policy efforts to ameliorate America's racist social conditions and institutions”
Lawrence Bobo, James R. Kluegel, Ryan A. Smith - LAISSEZ FAIRE RACISM: The Crystallization of a
'Kinder, Gentler' Anti-Black Ideology https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/bobo/files/laissez-faire.pdf
This is racism in the 21st Century.