This year the Illinois State University Department of Sociology and Anthropology is honored to bring to campus Dr. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, chair of the Department of Sociology at Duke University.
One of his Bonilla-Silva's most relevant books, Racism Without Racists: Colorblind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States, has been adopted for classes at ISU, and is currently being read by a group of sociology students.
In his book, he challenges the notions of a “post-racial,” “color blind” society to expose the contemporary contours of racial inequality in the United States. Bonilla Silva will visit campus Thursday and Friday, first guesting at a 3:00-5:00 p.m. reception at Medici in Uptown Normal. At 7 p.m., he will lecture on “The Sweet Enchantment of Post-Racial Racism in America,” in the Old Main Room of Bone Student Center.
Bonilla-Silva will examine the contours of America’s racial landscape since the early 1970s. His main claim is that racism, viewed in structural terms, has remained a central organizational principle of American life, albeit in changed form. The nation has moved away from traditional segregation and discrimination, but a “new racism” has taken its place. This new racial system relies on subtle, seemingly non-racial practices to reproduce white privilege, Bonilla-Silva maintains.
Along with the “new racism” structure, a new racial discourse has emerged to organize racial transactions and discussions — the ideology of “color-blind racism.” Bonilla-Silva will examine the component parts of this new ideology in detail. At the end of his talk, he will suggest various strategies to fight discrimination in this new racial order.
The Robert G. Bone Distinguished Lecture Series was established by the late Illinois State University President, Robert G. Bone (1956-1967). It is a yearly lecture shared by the departments of History, Politics and Government, and Sociology and Anthropology. It is designed to bring to campus distinguished scholars to deliver a public lecture and to meet with the faculty and students.