Colorblind and Colorbound: Racial Ideology in the Discourses on Intimate Interracial Relationships
Creators: name: Jonahs, Andrea
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Mass Communications
subject: race
subject: Racism
subject: colorblind ideology
subject: critical race theory
subject: Critical Discourse Analysis
subject: Pierre Bourdieu
subject: interracial relationships

description: This dissertation seeks to better understand the problem of racism—its locations, its strongholds, its discursive resources. More narrowly, it assumes that discourses pertaining to one’s private, intimate life offer a unique microcosm by which to examine contemporary racial ideology. To this end, this study examines online reader comments about intimate interracial relationships (IIRs) and asks the question, what do the online discourses on IIRs reveal about our shared understanding of race and racism? The theoretical framework in this study draws upon critical discourse analysis (CDA), critical race perspectives, and Pierre Bourdieu’s social theory. I use a thematic analysis to parse over 600 online comments, in response to three online articles, discussing the subject of IIRs, dating “preferences” and racism. Inductive and deductive coding capture rhetorical strategies and language features used to make sense of racialized dating practices. The patterns and themes that emerge from the analysis contribute to understanding the shifting nature of contemporary racial ideology. The discourses on IIRs reproduce everyday racism, that is, the repetitive, normalized, taken-for-granted ways in which racist structures are preproduced and reinforced (Essed,1991). Everyday racism undergirds colorblind ideology, the dominant racial ideology of our time that seeks to deny the ubiquity of racism (Bonilla-Silva, 2006; van Dijk, 1992a). By focusing on discourses about IIRs, this research highlights some unique features of colorblind ideology, expanding its discursive resources, and demonstrating its overall elasticity and resilience. The findings in this research indicate that the language of “preference” is a key feature of colorblind ideology. “Preferences”—drawing upon the term’s highly individualized yet broad definition—effectively sanction, downplay and normalize racism in the discourses on IIRs through a number of rhetorical strategies. Illustrating the flexability of colorblind ideology, I argue that colorblind discourses pull into its orbit colorbound discourses. Colorbound discourses express a bold attachment to the racialized body while at the same time, deny any racial meaning (racism defined as racist ill-intent) to such attachment. Colorboundness illustrates how social estimations of, and attachments to, racialized “looks” or makeup (which also shape estimations about character and intelligence) operate to maintain the racial hierarchy. Boundary work at the public-private border, sustained by a neoliberal ethos, is also central to colorblind and colorbound discourses. Boundary work articulates social values and obligations through the delineation of the private/public sphere. As such, liberal and neoliberal ideologies are reified through an emphasis on individual autonomy and free market values over discourses of colorblindness, meritocracy, and equality. Although less frequent theme in the data, everyday anti-racism discourses indicate efforts to challenge everyday racism. Everyday anti-racism, drawing on a variety of context-driven language resources, bring an (un)common sense into the discursive arena and expand the strategies for anti-racism efforts.