Nelson Leung
The Emergence of a New Type of Racism: Anti-Anti Racism For centuries, racism has been an issue effecting and influencing millions of lives. Its effect on how someone thinks, sees and acts towards another person has become so natural that many are not oblivious towards racism and its many forms. In the article “The New Racism”, author Jamelle Bouie describes the evolution of racism and how it affects Americans today. Author Jamelle Bouie is very adamant on the existence of anti-anti racism. He claims that this is the newest type of racism in America today. Anti-anti racism, as Jamelle defines it, is dismissing the existence of racism. It also includes their denial of being racist. “For these anti-anti-racists, accusations of racism are a greater concern than actual discrimination and prejudice against blacks and other minorities.” In this quote, Jamelle explicitly states that anti-anti racists are more focused on “accusations of racism”, rather than accept the big picture. “It’s not that they support racism, but that they see it as largely irrelevant to contemporary life—any problems with minority communities, in their eyes, have more to do with cultural dysfunction, not racial inequality.” This is one of the most powerful statements by Jamelle, where he shows how so many people are oblivious to the issue, and believe that it’s a “cultural dysfunction” that leads to these issues. They believe the issue lies within the African-American people and their communities, and ignore the big picture of how African-Americans have been bashed and suppressed for centuries now. We see the issues involving the public view when talking about two specific cases; the murder of Michael Brown and the murder of Trayvon Martin. As soon as these murders were reported on, the first thoughts of the general public view