Formal colorblindness preserves racial inequality in privatized, unnamed form.

Evidence

Formalism “saved” racism in each case by abandoning (or at least threatening to abandon) race. Call this born again racism. … Born again racism is racism without race, racism gone private, racism without the categories to name it as such. It is racism shorn of the charge, a racism that cannot be named because nothing abounds with which to name it. It is a racism purged of historical roots, of its groundedness, a racism whose history is lost. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 129

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘born again racism’ as post-antiracialist racism purged of categorizing language yet retaining its material conditions.
• XREF: Parallels the reader’s threatened-privilege framework: dominance preserved through a nominal collapse of the category, c.f. Milgrom on how institutions substitute for direct control. — connects to: Colorblind equal treatment perpetuates rather than ends racial hierarchy — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 1072; Colorblind measures reinforce existing racial privilege despite egalitarian intent — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 117; Declaring color-blindness cannot undo entrenched racialized inequality — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1840 (+18 more)

Broader Connections

• Colorblind equal treatment perpetuates rather than ends racial hierarchy #corroborates (0.95) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1072
• Colorblind measures reinforce existing racial privilege despite egalitarian intent #corroborates (0.95) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 117
• Color-blind policies still operate in an historically racialized American society. #corroborates (0.95) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1837
• Declaring color-blindness cannot undo entrenched racialized inequality #corroborates (0.90) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1840
• Color-blindness rhetoric was used to preserve white privilege #corroborates (0.90)
• Neutralizing past discrimination while barring future discrimination preserves accumulated White advantage. #corroborates (0.90) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 973
• Color-blind ideology masks ongoing discrimination while appearing egalitarian #corroborates (0.90) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1850
• Contemporary racial inequality persists without explicit racist laws or intentions #corroborates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1907
• Racial inequality does not rest only with discriminating individuals #expands (0.80) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 155
• Colorblind ideology presents the ability to forget race as progress. #expands (0.80) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 15
• Privatizing race frees racism to circulate unchecked in private life #expands (0.80)
• Abolishing official race language can mask persisting racialized structural inequalities as class inequalities. #expands (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1603
• Antiracial colorblindness erases the very vocabulary needed to press racial claims #expands (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 122
• Colorblindness replaced biological racism with cultural deficiency explanations #expands (0.75)
• Colorblind formalism rescued racism when movements threatened its material order. #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 128