A Report on the Banality of Racism

Abstract

I argue that the current state of racism in the United States of America is best described by what I, adapting Hannah Arendt’s concept, will call the Banality of Racism. Arendt’s work Eichmann in Jerusalem plays an important role in the philosophical development of Banality, but I also rely heavily on the work of sociologists and historians to make my case. I define the Banality of Racism as a combination of structuralized racism and the acceptance of dominant and mainstream white masculine culture, that includes a belief in narratives like the criminality of blackness and the post-racial attitude, which clouds our ability to think critically about racism and racial inequality. It thus makes it extremely difficult for us to determine what is and what is not racism. This leaves us unable to understand the oppression, challenges, and problems that African Americans and the ‘others’ in America face on a daily basis. At the conclusion, I propose that in order to overcome the Banality of Racism United States citizens have to confront our racial history and the legacy of oppression. Doing so will help to create more critical thinkers who can challenge current practices that continue to produce racial inequalities.