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Trust, Innocence, and Individual Responsibility: Neoliberal Dreams of a Colorblind Peace
Author(s) -
Perez Michael J.,
Salter Phia S.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/josi.12317
Subject(s) - economic justice , racism , ideology , innocence , context (archaeology) , sociology , poverty , structural violence , criminology , inequality , perception , social psychology , just world hypothesis , collective responsibility , political science , politics , psychology , gender studies , law , biology , paleontology , mathematical analysis , mathematics , neuroscience
In his 1944 article, Prospect of a World Without Racial Conflict , W.E.B. DuBois hypothesized that we would never live in a world without racial division. With this in mind, we highlight how neoliberal ideologies promote policy, actions, and an idea of peace that upholds racial inequality in the United States. We consider how neoliberal tenets, such as free market trust and individual responsibility, reflect and promote misperceptions of racial conflict and impact colorblind perceptions of peace and justice. These perceptions promote definitions of conflict as physical violence versus systemic violence, ignore racial equality as a path to peace in favor of harmonious interaction, and highlight individuals as responsible for racial conflict as opposed to the system. In response, we argue for counter‐definitions of peace that explicitly acknowledge systemic violence and prioritize justice within the racial conflict context.