Color-blind policy would perpetuate racial segregation without affirmative dismantling

Evidence

Even if society were to purge itself of racism and become color-blind, and people were to behave purely as rational economic actors in their choices of mobility and residential location, racially segregated space would still persist today absent affirmative efforts to dismantle the vestiges of historical racism. As Richard Ford explains, “race-neutral policy could be expected to entrench segregation and socio-economic stratifi- cation in a society with a history of racism.” His conclusion rests on the fact that leaving historical residential segregation intact would affect virtually every aspect of social status, including employment opportunities and residential mobility. For instance, because the education system is fi- nanced through local taxes, segregated localities would inevitably offer vastly different levels of educational opportunity: “the poor, black cities would have poorer education facilities than the wealthy, white cities.” In turn, “whites would be better equipped to obtain high-income employment than would blacks.” Whites’ increased economic status would likewise translate into an increased ability to buy into economically superior neighborhoods and would mean that the market value of white homes on average would be significantly higher than that of black homes. Thus, “blacks attempting to move into white neighborhoods would, on average, have less collateral with which to obtain new mortgages, or less equity to convert into cash.” — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 342

Categorization

• XREF: Reinforces the ch5 point about state rules perpetuating inequality and gives a concrete mechanism chain (schools, jobs, home equity) worth tracing. — connects to: Residential segregation was deliberately constructed, not natural or market-driven — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 340; Fair Housing Act can reach municipal zoning decisions harming communities of color; Declaring color-blindness cannot undo entrenched racialized inequality — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1840 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Declaring color-blindness cannot undo entrenched racialized inequality #corroborates (0.92) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1840
• Colorblind equal treatment perpetuates rather than ends racial hierarchy #corroborates (0.90) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1072
• Colorblind measures reinforce existing racial privilege despite egalitarian intent #corroborates (0.88) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 117
• Color-blindness rhetoric was used to preserve white privilege #corroborates (0.88)
• Color-blind ideology masks ongoing discrimination while appearing egalitarian #corroborates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1850
• Neutralizing past discrimination while barring future discrimination preserves accumulated White advantage. #corroborates (0.85) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 973
• Formal colorblindness preserves racial inequality in privatized, unnamed form. #corroborates (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 129
• Race-blindness works because racial order is already fully routinized #contradicts (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 137
• Color-blind rhetoric revived segregationism by condemning discussion of racism as itself racist #corroborates (0.78) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1162
• Colorblind ideology works only because it partly reflects real post-civil-rights gains #qualifies (0.78) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 245