Charles Gallagher Lecture

Charles Gallagher and his idea on Color Blind Racism in the 21st century is affected by many current situations. He suggests, through his theory of incidental racism, that although today's generation is in fact completely colorblind the issue of race will now become related to other more general topics instead of the color of one's skin. For example, while a person may not see a person's skin color anymore, they will notice the neighborhood they live in or the job they hold. It just so happens that the majority of poor neighborhoods are in fact mostly black or of other minority races.

Several times in his open discussion he would bring up the fact that American schools are poorly integrated especially within the inner cities. 85% of suburban school populations are white. Gallagher relates this to laissez-faire racism which means while the government does not condone or encourage racism there is still a general understanding of the advantage whites hold over the minority races.

But I honestly was somewhat offended by his generalization of American schools. Though it might be supported by facts and figures every persons experiences with race are different. In fact, in my high school I was the minority. Our population was split very nicely between a variety of races from Asian, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and a variety of other cultures and creeds. And though race was not entirely ignored in my high school it was generally respected.

Although Charles Gallagher had some interesting, some might call revolutionary, ideas on race and its influence in the future I'm not entirely sure I buy his theories or ideas but perhaps if I read them in more detail I might understand it a little bit better.