Brothers of the trade

Of all the contemporary racial theories, Feagin’s analysis of Systemic Racism and its underlying conceptualization of the white racial frame most closely illustrate an understanding of how American racial structures shape and impose identities rooted in America’s slave past. ¹ A theme that resonates throughout this discussion of Systemic Racism is the notion of the perpetual oppression of people of color by whites in America. Racist ideology, attitudes, emotions, stereotypes, and discriminatory habits and actions that reach far and deep and manifest themselves in American institutions all make up Feagin’s interpretation of systemic racism. Integral to the defining nature of systemic racism and crucial to an understanding of the persistence of these features in American society is the notion of racial framing. The White Racial Frame, to be more specific, is “a color-coded framing of society” inherent in American structures that refers to the particular way that whites conceive of and interpret their world. ² This frame shapes everyday events and encounters with others, and is characterized by negative images and stereotypes of African-Americans and other people of color, while asserting positive views of whites and white institutions. ³ All of these racial attitudes, ideologies, emotions, habits, views, stereotypes, images, and metaphors directed at people of color embody the “implicit rules” ⁴ to which Goffman refers – indicating the proscribed valuing and treatment of individuals based on “color” – that shape meanings and define social situations within the white racial framing of American society.