Colorblind ideology works only because it partly reflects real post-civil-rights gains

Evidence

But since hegemony itself is about the selective and strategic incorporation of opposition, it comes as no surprise that there are contradictions in the very logic of colorblind ideology. In the long run, colorblind racial ideology is only credible and can only “work” to the extent that it reflects the successes of the “post-civil rights” era in ameliorating racial injustice and inequality. A purely fabricated, mythical colorblindness could hardly be sustained intellectually, politically, or even socially in the interactions of everyday life. The effectiveness of colorblind ideology depends on its verisimilitude, on the credibility of its a prolonged period of rearticulation by the political right -a sustained attempt to contain the radical democratic potentialities of what we call the Great Transformation. — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 245

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains verisimilitude as the mechanism that sustains colorblind racial ideology — a requirement for ideology to persist.
• XREF: Connects to Gramscian hegemony theory already in the vault’s race/CRT claims; colorblindness as hegemonic incorporation of opposition echoes Frankfurt School accounts of ideology absorbing critique. — connects to: Color-blind policy would perpetuate racial segregation without affirmative dismantling — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 342; Colorblind antiracialism gains force only after partial antiracist gains begin succeeding — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 123; Color-blind ideology enshrined suburban autonomy and white racial innocence as national doctrine. — Matthew D. Lassiter, The Suburban Origins of “Color-Blind”…, 113 (+1 more)