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The Psychology of Racial Colorblindness pp 135–155Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Building a Conceptual Network Around Colorblindness

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Chapter Overview

The preceding chapters challenged arguably the two most-commonly cited rationales for colorblindness: namely, the idea that we can be colorblind due to perceived racial equality (Chapters 5 and 6) and the notion that we should be colorblind due to the perceived efficacy of colorblind policies (Chapters 7 and 8). Chapter 9 examines additional factors that may underlie racial colorblindness. These include underlying motivational factors, such as racial prejudice, demographic factors, such as age and race, and ideological orientations (e.g., political orientation, preference for social hierarchies). The chapter concludes with a comparison between racial colorblindness and an array of related constructs.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It should be noted at the outset that this chapter is much more speculative than preceding chapters were due to a dearth of related empirical research.

  2. 2.

    Despite these broad-brush predictions, it would be unfair to lump all racial and ethnic minority groups into one composite category. For example, Yancy (2003) has argued that Hispanics as a group are closer to the boundaries of Whiteness than other ethnic groups, and so may be more likely that other minority groups to espouse colorblind or assimilationist beliefs. The same might be presumed to apply to “model” minorities such as Asians.

  3. 3.

    Details regarding Mechanical Turk were provided in Chapter 3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ohio State University, Mansfield, Ohio, USA

    Philip J. Mazzocco

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  1. Philip J. Mazzocco
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Mazzocco, P.J. (2017). Building a Conceptual Network Around Colorblindness. In: The Psychology of Racial Colorblindness. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59302-3_9

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