Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity »

Wise was the 2008 Oliver L. Brown Distinguished Visiting Scholar for Diversity Issues at Washburn University. Wise tours constantly and delivers dozens of lectures each year. He is regularly sought for interviews and has been on 20/20, Paula Zahn, NOW with Bill Moyers, MSNBC, and Donahue. His previous books include Between Barack and a Hard Place and White Like Me.

How "colorblindness" in policy and personal practice perpetuate racial inequity in the United States today.

Publishers Weekly

In his follow-up to Between Barack and a Hard Place, Wise continues to explore his provocative contention that Obama’s commitment to transcending racism has made it “more difficult than ever to address ongoing racial bias” in America. By refusing to openly confront racism, Wise argues, the President has ceded the ground to conservatives, allowing them to “manipulate racial angers unmolested and unchecked.” While many progressives are disappointed that Obama has, in their view, capitulated to corporate interests and not forged his own New Deal, Wise makes the opposite charge. He believes that Obama is in fact too eager to follow FDR’s lead in subordinating racial issues to the fight against poverty. Obama’s endorsement of New Deal measures like social security, FHA home loan programs, and the G.I. Bill downplays the extent to which these programs were and continue to be “intensely racialized.” Wise also contends that the pervasiveness of racism has a subconscious effect on Americans that can only be altered by forcing the issue into the open. (July)

Preface 11

1 The Rise and Triumph of Post-Racial Liberalism 27

Colorblind Universalism and Public Policy 30

Barack Obama and the Rhetoric of Racial Transcendence 36

2 The Trouble With Post-Racial Liberalism 63

The Reality of Racial Disparities 64

Race-Based Injury, Inherited Disadvantage and Ongoing Discrimination 70

Dispensing With Victim-Blaming: The Inadequacy of Culture-of-Poverty Thinking 126

How Colorblindness Can Make Racism Worse 132

Talking Class, Hearing Race: Why Post-Racial Liberalism Fails on Its Own Terms 140

3 Illuminated Individualism: A Paradigm for Progressive Color-Consciousness 153

Illuminated Individualism as a Key to Fairness and Equity 157

Illuminated Individualism in Practice 169

Notes 195

About the Author 214