Students will complete a paper which expects them to apply the material covered in class (especially Bonilla-Silva’s 4 frames of colorblind racism) to their everyday social world. This could be in

Students will complete a paper which expects them to apply the material covered in class (especially 

Bonilla-Silva’s 4 frames of colorblind racism) to their everyday social world. This could be in their 

everyday personal relationships and conversations (e.g., journal); in public internet postings (e.g., 

videos) or social media; or traditional media (film, TV, newspaper). 

Keep in mind that in Chapters 2-5, Bonilla-Silva outlines the typical colorblind racism patterns, while 

in Chapter 6 he looks at how progressive racial ideology differs from those, and in Chapter 7 how 

racial “minorities” tend to use colorblindness differently than the majority. As his/her critical thinking 

decision making objective, the student should decide whether the societal evidence s/he reviews in 

the paper (a) demonstrates the typical colorblind pattern that Bonilla-Silva describes in the textbook; 

or (b) reveals a more progressive and/or minority pattern; or (c) some combination of the above; or 

(d) some other pattern not discussed in the textbook but worth exploring in future research. 

The student may find that the quotes s/he analyzes deliberately challenge one of the 4 frames of 

colorblindness in some way, and s/he can note this in the paper as well. 

Each paper should consider the implications of the analysis of colorblindness for the future of a 

multiracial society. In other words, how do the representations discovered in your analysis help and/or

hinder a society’s progress toward inclusive multiracial democracy? 

The paper must be 6 pages long, excluding the title page and any references. The papers will be 

checked by Turniti.com for plagiarism. They will be submitted in d2l under Activities...Assignments.

Media Analysis

Student should select (a) a film that has race as a major theme 

(e.g., Crash; Mississippi Burning; A Time to Kill; American History X); OR (b) TV program or programs

that deal with racial content (e.g., episode of talk show when race-related theme is considered; 

episode of sitcom that confronts race directly); OR (c) 2-3 OpEd pieces in a mainstream newspaper 

that discuss race-related issues. The paper should present quotes that illustrate all 4 frames of 

colorblindness and analyze them accordingly.