Still no level field

Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity makes the case that “colorblind” (race-neutral) policies actually serve to increase inequality and add “blaming the victim” to the mix. Tim Wise dismantles the myth that full equality has been won and the playing field is level with hard facts, citing studies that have shown the persistence of institutional racism and white racial preference in all areas, including employment, education and health care. He suggests that what has made President Barack Obama so appealing to white people—his lack of anger at entrenched discrimination—actually makes things harder for people of color by allowing whites to think that, if other people of color haven’t succeeded like Obama, it’s because they didn’t try hard enough. “Illuminated individualism” is Wise’s term for a practice that might tap Americans’ shared ideals of equality in a way that might end some of this persistent discrimination.