The aim of this study was to explore how the Roma’s fit into the colorblind ideology in Sweden. Roma’s have been stigmatized and victims of severe abuses by the state as they were classified as an inferior race. Sweden has replaced the word race with ethnicity however, these do not directly have the same meaning. The term race is classified as taboo in Sweden making it hard to address issues regarding racial discrimination. Through my analysis I have discovered that colorblindness is integrated in all aspects of society. Institutions have used colorblind arguments which have diminished the institutional discrimination of the Roma’s. The colorblind ideology has hindered Roma inclusion meaning that their progress has been slowed down. They are still exposed in several sectors including labor market, housing market and the educational system. This thesis contributes to more knowledge regarding the relationship between Roma’s and colorblindness in Sweden. The subject has not been addressed before and the thesis opens up a new area of study.

This work explored the academic success of 10 Latino/a students in Southern View School District, a school district in the state of Utah. The students and their parents, when available, were interviewed and the students' academic records were reviewed. The students were asked to identify a school person, teacher, administrator, or staff person, who could help explain their success. The school person was then interviewed. The data were collated and analyzed using resilience theory and the critical race-based constructs of resistance and resilience resistance. The construct of colorblindness was also used to discuss the participants' attitudes towards less successful Latino/a students and their families. The work revealed that the successful Latino/a students accessed the protective factors of personal strengths and environmental resources to remain resilient and achieve in school. It was also discovered that the students' success was also a form of resistance that was explained using the constructs of conformist resistance and resilient resistance. The student success was revealed as a way to resist oppression and remain in the educational pipeline. It was also discovered that student, parent, and school participants had adopted a colorblind ideology that assumed equal opportunity was available to all without regard to race. These observations led to the conclusion that the school system and the students of color it served would benefit from direct discussion of White privilege and what it means to be of a non-White racial group. The recommendation was that the school should adopt a systematic model of social justice education that could help more student access protective factors and facilitate critical conversations about race

Two studies were conducted to explore the effects of the sociopolitical ideologies colorblindness and multiculturalism on perceivers’ (1) automatic awareness of race and (2) automatic racial stereotyping. Study 1 showed that a colorblind prime caused White perceivers to notice White targets’ race more compared to a no prime condition, although non-White perceivers were able to ignore race when primed with colorblindness. Multiculturalism, on the other hand, caused individuals to notice race no differently than the control. In terms of stereotyping, Study 2 showed that a colorblind prime did not change automatic stereotyping of Black or White targets. In contrast, multiculturalism increased automatic positive stereotyping of Black targets compared to the control condition, but did not affect stereotyping of White targets. Implications discussed include why colorblindness might affect White and non-White perceivers differently as well as whether or not decreased positive stereotyping of Whites (in the case of colorblindness) and increased positive stereotyping of both Blacks (in the case of multiculturalism) are beneficial ways to attain national unity.

Although the reality of Swedish race relations is very complex, Sweden presents itself to the world as a colorblind utopia where race does not exist. Since the mid-1900s, Sweden has embraced an anti-racist rhetoric that developed into post-racism and colorblindness, where race is not seen, and racial discrimination is not acknowledged as a societal problem. This study seeks to problematize the complexities of Swedish post-racism and colorblindness. By drawing on previous research, it is clear that the Swedish hegemony has not been thoroughly deconstructed, which necessitates further studies in this area. By drawing on the WPR approach to poststructural policy analysis, this study looks at how Swedish law is influenced by the narratives of colorblindness and details the shortcomings of excluding the term ‘race’ from legislation. Furthermore, this study employs expert interviews to access the knowledge of experts on how colorblindness and post-racism came to be. It is concluded in this thesis that the post-racist and colorblind perception of Sweden influences Swedish law in negative ways and that the removal of the term race is a denial of the existence of a racial hierarchy in Sweden.

Since the inclusion of affirmative action programs in numerous places of opportunity in our society there have been objections to these programs. This study will focus on the "colorblind" objection which relies on the belief that our Constitution mandates that all laws must not take race into account. With the analysis of court cases from the past century it is evident that this belief in colorblindness did not exist nor was it claimed to exist in the numerous cases dealing with segregation and racial subordination. It is concluded that this reliance on a principle of colorblindness in opposition of affirmative action is not well-founded, and coming at this juncture in society it does more hurt than help. There is a case analysis from four important cases from the Reconstruction and Jim Crow era which were heard by state and federal courts. A history of the colorblind principle is given and affirmative action cases are also summarized and discussed to give the reader a sense of the current judicial stance on the programs. Literature in favor of a colorblind principle is critiqued and support from other scholars is given.

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This dissertation traces the history of black and white evangelical encounters between the 1960s and 1990s. In the crucible of these encounters, white evangelicals forged a new theology of race: Christian colorblindness. Drawing on biblical idioms and the rhetoric of spiritual unity, white evangelicals turned their back on white supremacist theologies even as they resisted black evangelical calls for a more thorough redistribution of power. In the ambiguous space between racist reaction and anti-racist Christianity, white evangelicals successfully expanded their movement and adapted to the changes the civil rights movement wrought. Professing to be united in Christ, they molded an evangelical form of whiteness while proclaiming colorblind intentions. Colorblind Christians embraced a politics of church primacy. They believed that conversion to evangelical Christianity, not systemic change or legal reform, was the source of racial progress. When people became Christians, their new identity as members of the Body of Christ superseded any racial identity. Black evangelicals could use such claims to press for inclusion in white evangelical institutions. But white evangelicals often used the same logic to silence black evangelical demands for reform. In these spaces of ostensible Christian unity, white evangelicals preserved whiteness at the center of American evangelicalism. The story of black and white evangelical encounters reveals an American racial order that was at once racial and religious. Colorblind Christians invites scholars of race to consider how religion shapes racial formation and encourages scholars of religion to think about how race structures religion. Using the archives of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, overlooked records from the most influential church growth initiative of the era, and rarely-examined sources such as student newspapers from white evangelical colleges, Colorblind Christians shows how white evangelicals shaped the American racial order and became successful religio-racial entrepreneurs in a time of rapid change. Using race strategically to grow their churches, white evangelicals invested in whiteness in the name of spreading a colorblind gospel. Black evangelicals promoted an alternative evangelical vision that placed racial justice at the center of the gospel. Their efforts to belong in American evangelicalism revealed the racial boundaries of the movement. By the end of the twentieth century, Christian colorblindness had helped to grow evangelicalism and enhance its political power, but it did so by coloring evangelicalism white. Black evangelicals, outsiders in their own religious tradition, continued to expose these often-invisible investments and pointed the way toward an evangelicalism beyond whiteness. / History

This thesis examines the controversy surrounding the renaming of a street for Martin Luther King, Jr. in the city of Zephyrhills, Florida in 2003-2004. By paying close attention to the language deployed during a series of contentious city council meetings, the thesis traces how Zephyrhills' divisive history and neoliberal spatial order kept white residents from grappling with the city's legacy of racism, inequality, residential segregation, and the memory of the Civil Rights movement. Ultimately, it reveals Americans' limited capacity to recognize and discuss race in the post-Civil Rights era. / History

In this ethnographic study, I draw on interviews, audiorecordings of course meetings, observation notes and student work to explore the experiences of White preservice teachers in two sections of a Social Contexts of Education course. The instructors of both sections sought to challenge students’ color-blind racial ideologies. Whereas prior research documents prospective teachers resisting learning about race, this study’s participants evidenced a willingness to engage with this content. Nevertheless, most participants still remained committed to color-blind ideologies at the end of the course. This research offers insights into two obstacles that hindered most participants from adopting color-conscious ideologies as well as four pedagogical strategies that successfully interrupted, at least temporarily, some participants’ color-blind ideologies. The findings lead to pedagogical recommendations for teacher educators, structural suggestions for teacher education programs, and a theoretical contribution about the important role of socio-cultural understandings of identity in the preparation of color-conscious teachers. / Urban Education

Drawing from a qualitative semi structured interview format, this study aims to better understand and examine how the social work programme among universities in Sweden teach antiracist and/or other critical theories regarding race and racism to its students. Theories of colorblindness and critical whiteness are used to analyze empiricism; previous research from the field is also used to build a holistic understanding. The empiricism is based on eight racialized individuals: seven social work students and one newly graduated. The essay shows the students experiences regarding the critical anti racist practice and education varies little. All students, except one, did not have enough antiracist or race-centered theories that aimed to combat racism and build a better understanding of the dynamic power structures that can affect the social work praxis and outcome. The essay concludes that more work is needed in order to build better equipped social workers of the future that can combat racism in an antiracist social work manner.