The Problem of White Normativity

The Problem of White Normativity: How Systemic Racism Works and the Curious Case of Historically White Colleges and Universities
Speaker: Professor Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of sociology at Duke University
Chair: Professor Patrick Baert, Professor of Social Theory, University of Cambridge
Abstract: In this talk Professor Bonilla-Silva explores the idea that white normativity is key to understand how racial order works in societies. Beginning with a discussion on what racism is, as we still hold firmly to the perspective that sees racism as prejudice.
Secondly, he argues that the ideology of colour-blind racism is hegemonic in the world and outline some of its major components. Thirdly, he spends some time describing how HWCUs (historically white colleges and universities) were established and how their internal racial order signifies and reproduces whiteness. Fourth, he argues that racial domination does not depend on actors’ intentionality or their racially conscious behaviour, but rather, as Marx said about capitalists, on the fact that they are “unconscious personifications” of the racial order. As such, they are like batteries charged with whiteness and their “electricity” is discharged in all sorts of interactions. Lastly, he concludes by articulating the implications of his various arguments.
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva is the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of sociology at Duke University. He gained visibility in the social sciences with his 1997 American Sociological Review article, “Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation,” where he challenged analysts to study racial matters structurally and his book, Racism without Racists (sixth edition in 2022), has become a classic. He served as President of the Southern Sociological Society and the American Sociological Association in 2017-2018 and will serve as the Pitts Professor of History and Social Institutions at Cambridge from 2024-2025.
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