Eduardo Bonilla Silva

Now a professor at Duke University, he was president of the American Sociology Association in 2018. He has mentored numerous scholars through the course of his career.

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva 1/1/2018 ASA: "Many of my colleagues in the field of racial stratification have told me he is the reason why they went to graduate school and decided to dedicate their careers to better understanding racism in order to dismantle it."

Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States, 2nd edition, 2006, 298p, PDF

Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States, Chapter 2, Central Frames of Color-Blind Racism, by Eduardo Bonilla Silva, 2006

Black, Honorary White, White: The Future of Race in the United States? in Mixed Message Multiracial Identities in the "Color-Blind" Era, Brunsma, 2006

The Linguistics of Color Blind Racism: How to Talk Nasty about Blacks without Sounding “Racist” 1/1/2002 Critical Sociology: by Eduardo Bonilla Silva - "In this paper I argue that color blind racism, the central racial ideology of the post-civil rights era, has a peculiar style characterized by slipperiness, apparent nonracialism, and ambivalence. This style ?ts quite well the normative climate of the country as well as the central frames of color blind racism. I document in the paper ? ve stylistic components of this ideology, namely, (1) whites’ avoidance of direct racial language, (2) the central rhetorical strategies or “semantic moves” used by whites to safely express their racial views, (3) the role of projection, (4) the role of diminutives, and (5) how incursions into forbidden issues produce almost total incoherence among many whites. I conclude the paper with a discussion on how this style enhances the ideological menace of color blind racism."

Articles/Artículos

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, "Why Can't We Just Get Along?..."

DeSantis Versus the Left-Wing Educrats, Again  1/27/2023 National Review: "Leaked reading lists and teacher’s guides showed the course pushed critical race theorists such as Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, including his concept of “color-blind racism.” As Stanley Kurtz wrote here at NR, “If DeSantis were to approve a course pushing the idea of ‘color-blind racism,’ he would effectively be nullifying his own Stop WOKE Act.”

Rejected African American Studies Course in Florida Features CRT, Intersectionality and Queer Theory  1/19/2023 Florida Standard: [Links to download of the full AP syllabus.] "Section 4 of the syllabus introduces the topic “Postracial Racism and Colorblindness” and features texts from Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, who employs Critical Race Theory in his writings. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s book Racism without Racists describes how “Whites talk, think, and account for the existence of racial inequality and makes clear that color-blind racism is as insidious now as ever.” The book’s second chapter, entitled “What is Systemic Racism? Coming to Terms with How Racism Shapes ‘All’ Whites (and Non-Whites)” explains how “all members of society participate in structural racism,” according to an online summary."

At this point the Sunshine State is just a sundown town  1/19/2023 Always Learning: "Let’s speak plainly about the hypocrisy of the right wing. They use the language of “free speech” and open discourse while actively endeavoring to suppress both. The parallels between days passed when laws were used to control and exclude Blacks match up neatly with today’s efforts by thought-controlling white politicians to limit the studying of those past actions. Just because you pass laws demanding students be taught the law is colorblind doesn’t make it so. I’ll keep making the point that nowhere in the United States are there Black governors or elected officials seeking to outlaw white thought, white history, or white scholarship until someone recognizes the one-direction animus of anti-CRT lawmaking."

El Daltonismo Racial: La ‘Mano Invisible’ del racismo  6/2/2019 Afrofeminas: "El sociólogo Eduardo Bonilla-Silva propone un marco alternativo (Bonilla-Silva, 1997) a los de lo ideológico, lo marxista y lo institucional que está constituido por cuatro marcos que explican el orden racial contemporáneo -el racismo daltónico."

Daltonismo Racial, el nuevo racismo  5/22/2018 Rebelion Feminista: "«El daltonismo racial es la música racial nueva que todo el mundo baila, el «nuevo racismo» es sutil, institucionalizado y aparentemente no racial.» – Emilio Bonilla-Silva."

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva  1/1/2018 ASA: "Many of my colleagues in the field of racial stratification have told me he is the reason why they went to graduate school and decided to dedicate their careers to better understanding racism in order to dismantle it."

ASA President Eduardo Bonilla-Silva Responds to Chief Justice John Roberts  10/9/2017 American Sociology Association: "We are certain that the social scientists and legal scholars at your alma mater would be disappointed to learn that you attributed your lack of understanding of social science to your Harvard education. Should you be interested in enhancing your education in this area, we would be glad to put together a group of nationally and internationally renowned sociologists to meet with you and your staff. Given the important ways in which sociological data can and has informed thoughtful decision-making from the bench, such time would be well spent."

The Structure of Racism in Color-Blind, "Post-Racial" America  5/1/2015 American Behavioral Scientist: "In this article, I describe the racial order of America in the post-Civil Rights era. First, I discuss what racism is all about and emphasize the centrality of conceiving the phenomenon in a structural way. Second, I argue that the “new racism,” or the set of mostly subtle, institutional, and seemingly nonracial mechanisms and practices that comprise the racial regime of “post-racial” America, has all but replaced the old Jim Crow order. Third, I describe the racial ideology of color-blind racism and its component parts (i.e., frames, style, and racial stories) and contend that, like the racial order, this new ideology is slippery and has a “beyond race” character. Fourth, I explain that the Obama moment is part of the new racism, color-blind period and justify my claim empirically. I conclude this essay pondering if people of color will wake up and realize that the new, more “civil” way of maintaining and justifying racial things is a more formidable way of maintaining racial domination."

Critical Race Theory: Its Origins, History, and Importance to the Discourses and Rhetorics of Race  11/1/2014 Frame Literary Journal

An assessment of the Latin Americanization thesis  6/8/2009 Ethnic and Racial Studies: "In 2004, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva published an article in which he proposed a provocative thesis he argued that the US system of race is beginning to resemble that of Latin America. Despite the attention received from the US side, there has been no response from scholars of race in Latin America. This article is a critical reply to Bonilla-Silva’s Latin Americanization thesis. In the article, I move the debate forward by introducing a Latin American perspective. I begin by outlining and addressing various claims made by Bonilla-Silva regarding the Latin American system of race. I then discuss how his thesis is put to the empirical test and briefly comment on the model’s ability to explain the future of race in the United States. I conclude with a discussion of how the racial terrain is rapidly changing in Latin America and the implications that this has for Silva’s theory. Finally, I suggest ways in which the Latin Americanization thesis can be improved."

The Latin Americanization of Racial Stratification in the U.S.  1/15/2008 ResearchGate: by Eduardo Bonilla Silva - "Aside from what exists in the U.S. there is another layer of complexity in Latin American racial stratification systems. They include three racial strata, which are internally designated by “color.” In addition to skin tone, phenotype, hair texture, eye color, culture, education, and class matter is the phenomenon known as pigmentocracy, or colorism. Pigmentocracy has been central to the maintenance of White power in Latin America because it has fostered: (a) divisions among all those in secondary racial strata; (b) divisions within racial strata limiting the likelihood of within-strata unity; (c) mobility viewed as individual and conditional upon “whitening;” and (d) white elites being regarded as legitimate representatives of the “nation” even though they do not look like the average member of the “nation.” A related dynamic in Latin American stratification is the social practice of “Blanqueamiento,” or whitening, not a neutral mixture but a hierarchical movement wherein valuable movement is upward. Racial mixing oriented by the goal of whitening shows the effectiveness of the logic of White supremacy. As a Latin America-like society, the United States will become a society with more, rather than less, racial inequality but with a reduced forum for racial contestation. The apparent blessing of “not seeing race” will become a curse for those struggling for racial justice in years to come. We may become “All Americans,” as commercials in recent times suggest, but paraphrasing George Orwell: “some will be more American than others.”"

The Central Frames of Color Blind Racism, in Racism Without Racists, 2nd edition  12/1/2006 Washington State

Black, Honorary White, White: The Future of Race in the United States? In "Negotiating the Color Line: Doing Race in the Color-Blind Era and Implications for Racial Justice"  12/1/2005 UC Santa Barbara

We are all Americans!: the Latin Americanization of racial stratification in the USA  12/1/2002 University of Maryland: "Therein lies the weaknesses of the emerging tri-racial order and the possibilities for challenging it. Members of the “collective Black” must be the backbone of the movement challenging the new order as they are the ones who will remain literally “at the bottom of the well.” However, if they want to be successful, they must wage, in coalition with progressive Asian and Latino organizations, a concerted effort to politicize the segments I label “honorary Whites” and make them aware of the honorary character of their status. This is the way out of the impending new racial quandary. We need to short-circuit the belief in near-whiteness as the solution to status differences and create a coalition of all “people of color” and their White allies."

Neither Black nor White? An empirical test of the Latin Americanization thesis  12/1/2002 Penn State: "Over the past four decades, demographic trends have provoked divergent perspectives concerning the future of race and ethnic relations in the United States. Despite the important implications of these differing interpretations of the future, social scientists have given them little empirical scrutiny. In this study, we systematically investigate one of these perspectives—Bonilla-Silva et al. [Research in Political Sociology 23 (2003) 111] Latin Americanization thesis. The Latin Americanization thesis posits that the United States is moving from a two-tier, White/non-White, racial stratification system toward a three-tier one that consists of the following categories: (1) White, (2) honorary White, and (3) collective Black. In this article, we empirically test one aspect of this thesis—the idea that members of the “White,” “honorary White” and “collective Black” categories will express social attitudes that reflect their status position in the newly emergent three-tier racial stratification system. We use a large nationally representative sample of non-Hispanic Whites, non-Hispanic Blacks, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans to assess this question. Our results lend qualified support to the Latin Americanization thesis. We conclude by considering the implications of these results for future research on contemporary racial dynamics."

The Linguistics of Color Blind Racism: How to Talk Nasty about Blacks without Sounding “Racist”  1/1/2002 Critical Sociology: "In this paper I argue that color blind racism, the central racial ideology of the post-civil rights era, has a peculiar style characterized by slipperiness, apparent nonracialism, and ambivalence. This style ?ts quite well the normative climate of the country as well as the central frames of color blind racism. I document in the paper ? ve stylistic components of this ideology, namely, (1) whites’ avoidance of direct racial language, (2) the central rhetorical strategies or “semantic moves” used by whites to safely express their racial views, (3) the role of projection, (4) the role of diminutives, and (5) how incursions into forbidden issues produce almost total incoherence among many whites. I conclude the paper with a discussion on how this style enhances the ideological menace of color blind racism."

RETHINKING RACISM: TOWARDS A STRUCTURAL INTERPRETATION  10/1/1994 University of Michigan: "The purpose of this paper is to point out the severe limitations of most contemporary frameworks employed in the analysis of racial issues and to suggest an alternative structural theorization. Rather than viewing racism as a mere idea, belief or attitude, I contend that racism is the ideological apparatus of a mialized social system. This means that racial phenomena in any society have their own structure. I argue that the racism operates within the boundaries of social relations of subordination and superordination among racialized social actors (races). In other words, the existence of racism indicates the existence of a racial structure in society."