Eduardo Bonilla-Silva offered an interesting plan to assuage racial conflicts in Racism without Racists. He proposed something he called a “triracial system”. Explaining the structure of the system he writes, “the emerging triracial system will be comprised of ‘whites’ at the top, an intermediary group of ‘honorary whites’-similar to the coloreds in South Africa during formal apartheid, and a nonwhite group or the “collective black” at the bottom” (179). He goes on to explain how this system will emulate the social structure in Latin America where race is not as clear cut as in the United States and where racism is something kept in silence. Bonilla-Silva believes that this will benefit the country.
After reading his proposal, all I could do was sigh at how implausible his plan was. There are many issues with his plan even with all his statistics and research.
First off, I find this system inherently racist. Those at the top are white or very near white and as the system descends, the people are darker-skinned. This structure is organized based on color, income, and how different races view other races. All this system reminds me of are the systems of apartheid (which he admits to) and the encomienda, two pretty oppressive systems if you ask me.
Secondly, the use of “honorary whites” to buffer racial conflict sounds like tomfoolery. Those that make up this part of the system include “most light-skinned Latinos (e.g., most Cubans and segments of the Mexican and Puerto Rican communities), Japanese Americans, Korean Americans, Asian Indians, Chinese Americans, and most Middle Eastern Americans Americans” (179). There is very little doubt in my mind that the people in this group will have an inclination towards whites as opposed to those in the “collective black” and vice versa. Bonilla-SIlva even points that fact out when he discusses the racial attitudes held by Asians, Latinos, and whites.
Some may even identify themselves as white and begin to think of themselves as part of the top group. The proposed system allows for this sort of mobility to occur as Bonilla Silva states: “Groups may move up or down and I am willing to contemplate this possibility” (194). What’s to say that those in the “honorary white” group will not all begin to identify as white and flood into the top group? There’s nothing to stop that from happening. If that does indeed happen, there will be a drastic decrease in the number of “honorary whites” and a huge gap will exist between whites and “collective blacks”. Suddenly, the buffer is now gone and gradually, this system will just be like the old system that Bonilla-Silva was trying to replace: whites vs. non whites, “us versus them” (196).
Thirdly, blacks have been at the bottom of the social structure for a long, long time. I’m sure they won’t be happy being at the bottom once more. In addition. there isn’t much hope for those at the bottom. Let’s be honest, even Bonilla-Silva doesn’t offer a “way” for “collective blacks” to ascend in the structure. Years and years of being relegated to the bottom will no doubt stir up even more racial tensions among blacks and those above them in the structure. Why do you think we have a #BlackLivesMatter movement going on?
I don’t think Bonilla-Silva thought his plan through. What works in one part of the world may not always work in another. The system in Latin America derived from years under the Spanish encomienda system, something that was not at all firmly put in place in the United States. Frankly, in order to benefit from this system you have to either have a high income, look sorta white (maybe), have some type of education, like white people and have them like you back, or all four of these. This triracial system doesn’t remedy anything. It’s the same old system just with a different name and some “research” to back it up.
So Eduardo Bonilla-Silva,
