One of the gains of the civil rights movement was to make displays of blatant racism unacceptable.  Although still a problem, overt discrimination is generally deemed inappropriate in mainstream society.  Unfortunately, this progress in race relations has corresponded with a move towards a “colorblind” ideology; the notion that race is no longer an issue in contemporary America. For example, the authors of the recent book, Whitewashing Race, draw attention to the work of conservative intellectuals, which calls for an elimination of the concepts of  “race” and “racism” from mainstream discourse.  If this colorblind philosophy takes hold in the US, it could be argued that the denial of racial discrimination will become further entrenched, and consequently, hidden or subtle racism will become unchallengeable.

A case could be made that the UK is an example of a country where a colorblind ideology is already deep-seated, and consequently, confronting hidden racism is near impossible.  Thus, it is worth considering the Black British experience in terms of what a colorblind future could mean for the US. 

In the UK, there is an ideology of assimilation, where there is the utmost pressure to blend into the white mainstream; there is an emphasis on not noticing difference, a “we’re all the same” ethos.  It could also be argued that as far as the majority of British whites are concerned, racism is a thing that happened in “the olden days.” For the most part, the British media portray the UK as a place where blacks and whites live and work, side by side in harmony; in British soap operas, blacks integrate with whites in predominantly white settings with remarkably little reference to race.

It is certainly the case that by and large, Britain appears to be well integrated when compared with other countries in the world, and has anti-discrimination laws (unlike most of its European counterparts). However, statistics concerning the reality of the black experience in Britain tell a different story. With reference to just a few examples, in schools, black children are six times more likely to be “excluded” (that is expelled from schools) than their white counterparts; black people are eight times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than white people; and blacks make up 17% of the UK prison population despite constituting less than 2% of the general population. Indeed, in a 2002 Observer special report, Osmanand and Harris estimated that “if ‘black Britain’ were to be a separate country it would have the highest imprisonment rate in the world.”  At the same time, most British policy reports and newspapers simply identify “institutional racism” as the culprit for these discrimination statistics, whilst overlooking the reality that behind the shadowy concept of institutional racism are individual acts of hidden racism.

So what exactly is “hidden” or “subtle” racism?  Certainly, in the UK context, this form of racial bias essentially involves white individuals discriminating against blacks without revealing their true motive. This type of discrimination often requires the collusion of other individuals with the perpetrator; other whites conveniently ignore acts of bias, so long as nobody verbalizes anything in racial terms.  For example, whites may have racist emotional reactions to blacks, and then personalize their racism by attributing their unease to some factor other than race, often blaming the black individual for some personal failing.  Whites also often systematically misinterpret blacks’ behavior in negative terms.  Thus while they might regard an outspoken white person as an “extrovert,” they may perhaps label a similar black individual as “aggressive”; while a white patient may be diagnosed with depression, a black presenting objectively similar symptoms might be diagnosed with schizophrenia. It is also noticeable that in employment situations, blacks are expected to be upbeat and bouncy continuously, or face criticism, whereas whites for the most part, are allowed to be themselves.

Hidden racism is very much about “adding insult to injury” since one is subject first, to the discriminatory act itself, and second, to being prevented from labeling it.  In the UK’s present racial climate, challenging this insidious variety of discrimination is all but futile since there is no discourse for debating racism of this nature; in a sense one is trying to put into words the unspoken, and consequently racism “goes underground.”  Thus, in Britain, talking about race is a taboo, which effectively requires that blacks do not speak about the realities of everyday discrimination; in white environments, there is the unspoken assumption, “what ever you do, don’t mention race.” At the same time, there has been a backlash against using anti-racist measures, making the identification of racist behavior even more subversive. Ultimately, making racial bias unmentionable is its own oppression; it is merely another form of social control of black people in the contemporary world.

Clare Xanthos is a university researcher.  She received her PhD in Social Policy from the London School of Economics in February 2004.

April 15 2004
Issue 86

is published every Thursday.