New racism

Racism that we deal with nowadays differs to those of the past. People in society nowadays claim to be colourblind and not judge someone by their race. However, it is just a more politically correct way to be racist. In the past, racism would be of biological nature and has developed from one of aggressive prejudice to subtle prejudicial behaviour. New racism operates on essentialism, objectifying national identity and cultural rituals. It does this by setting the anglo culture and nation as the norm and anything else that does not fall into that category gets labelled as ethnic. This is where binary opposites come in and those of ethnic background gets put under "nature" and the white is labelled "cultural".

Even shows like the Cosby Show was successful in portraying Blacks as middle class citizens in America, it conforms them to Anglo standards. In a sense, the show was a justification that Black people can live just as white people can, thus normalising Black culture and assimilating them into white culture. Assimilation requires that people of colour adopt the way of life of the Anglo culture, thereby losing their own cultural and social specificity in a bid to gain white acceptance. Even though Obama has been elected as president, he still operates on the same administration as Bush. He has not changed anything in terms of accountability, transparency or civil obligations. This is an example of eurocentrism which is defined as an approach that takes European values, judgments and beliefs and cultures as normal, natural and ideal. In other words, it makes European Values central and dismisses others to the periphery.

If our world is a global village, then why can't people act like it is? Even though people are not overtly racist or white supremacist, they still uphold the mentality that white culture is the norm.