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Discriminatory practices and prejudice are upheld by oppressive ideologies. An ideology is a “set of principles and views that embodies the basic interests of a particular social group” (Feagin 2009). In the context of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, ideologies rationalize social inequalities as “just” and “fair.” Some oppressive ideologies are explicitly hostile to groups, painting them as morally or intellectually inferior, based on religious or scientific standards, and so deserving of unequal treatment, such as neo-Nazism. These explicit beliefs continue to shape how people think, but alongside them are ideologies that appear benign or even progressive yet still reinforce racial (and other social) hierarchies. For instance, the dominant American liberal ideology of self-sufficiency and bootstrap mentality (i.e. “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”), which asserts that any group can rise up if it tries hard enough, has strong racial implications (Bonilla-Silva 2003). This set of beliefs is premised on the notion of an open, meritocratic economic system that allows individuals to succeed if they work hard and are deserving. Individuals’ rights matter more than groups’ rights. If individuals fail, it is their own fault. So, policies that assist people as members of groups, such as affirmative action, are critiqued.

This ideology has been proven false, for there are many challenges to rising up economically for minorities and women, including inadequate access to quality education, closed-job networks, recessions and other macro-economic trends, and more (Fischer et al. 1996). And the ideology covers up many of the atrocities perpetrated on minorities, such as genocide, slavery, forced labor, loss of land, internment, and more. Still, this popular ideology blames minorities for their lack of upward mobility. Connected with this is the popular ideology of “color-blindness,” discussed in chapter 1. This ideology is purportedly anti-racist in its calls to ignore race and treat people as individuals, with the assumption that racism has already gone or will go away. Yet this represents wishful thinking rather than a realistic appraisal of racial dynamics. As explained above, institutional discrimination persists even for color-blind individuals.

The combination of belief in American meritocracy along with the post-civil rights push to be color-blind has led most recently to a “laissez-faire racist ideology.” This ideology accepts institutionalized discrimination as the natural order of social relations. As sociologist Lawrence Bobo writes, “laissez-faire racism involves persistent negative stereotyping of African Americans, a tendency to blame blacks themselves for the black/white gap in socioeconomic standing, and resistance to meaningful policy efforts to ameliorate US racist social conditions and institutions” (2006: 17). Because the economic system in the United States, in particular in the South, no longer depends on a caste-like system of highly exploited labor serving white elites in a few capacities, the ideology of race has changed. The new ideology no longer needs groups to be so marginalized along all conditions of social life, and so legislated racism (e.g. Jim Crow segregation laws) and racist anti-immigration laws have faded. Yet this does not mean that the dominant group wants frequent association with minorities and immigrants. It only means that the current economic system does not require extreme discrimination.

Within this framework, the economic system continues to de-privilege minorities, but concerns over persisting racial inequalities are few. Minorities are blamed for their own conditions, partly because the ideology of color-blindness, promulgated most forcefully by white elites, affirms the racial status quo (Bonilla-Silva 2003). A belief in American liberalism – that individual freedoms and responsibilities are paramount to American identity and upward mobility – supports this ideology. Policies that promote interactions across groups, such as affirmative action, receive tenuous support at best. Regarding Asian Americans, some may become “honorary whites,” that is, seemingly accepted as akin to whites and separate from blacks, but not equal to whites (Bonilla-Silva 2003). But laissez-faire racism makes people ignore problems, such as overcrowded neighborhoods in Chinatowns, garment workers in sweatshops, anti-Asian quotas in higher-education admissions, and other forms of institutionalized discrimination discussed throughout this book.