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Journalist Ellis Cose (1993) cogently writes, "Racial discussions tend to be conducted at one of two levels-either in shouts or in whispers. The shouters are generally so twisted by pain or ignorance that spectators tune them out. The whisperers are so afraid of the sting of truth that they avoid saying much of anything at all" (p. 9). This quote resonated with me. While teaching about racism and racial issues, I have often pondered: why is it so difficult to talk-not shout or whisper-about race and racial issues in academic settings? This question has been grappled with by a number of researchers and teacher educators (Goodman, 1998; Ladson-Billings, 1996; Nieto, 1998; Tatum, 1997, to name a few) who use Critical Race Theory (Ladson-Billings, 1997; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995) or Critical White studies (Marx, 2003; Scheurich, 1993; see also Sheets, 2000) to challenge liberal discourses about racism, to interrogate the system of racial oppression, power, and privilege. Critical Race Theory and Critical White studies have been introduced as part of teacher preparation programs and have informed critical multicultural education by allowing prospective teachers to examine curriculum and pedagogy in relation to institutional racism. Critical multicultural education poses a paradigmatic challenge to liberal discourse on race, i.e., colorblind ideology. For example, critical multicultural education brings the significance of race to the fore in its analysis of social relations (King, 1991; Ladson-Billings, 1997; Lewis, 2001; Sleeter, 1996) whereas liberal discourses tend to disguise racial inequality by employing the rhetoric of equal opportunity and fair treatment. Critical educators, particularly Critical Race pedagogues, critique colorblind ideology as tantamount to racism because it serves to maintain racial inequality. King (1991), for example, refers to colorblindness as "dysconscious racism" since colorblind ideology sustains and justifies the culture of power (see also, Delpit, 1988). Colorblind ideology constitutes a new racism in the era of political correctness and free market individualism (Bonilla-Silva, 1997; Carr, 1997). Gordon (2005) writes, "Colorblindness is a bid for innocence, an attempt to escape our responsibility for our White privilege. By claiming innocence, we reconcile ourselves to racial irresponsibility" (p. 143).
Sociologists (Bonilla-Silva, 1997; Feagin, 1993; Frankenberg, 1993) also point out the pervasiveness of colorblind ideology in White people's perspectives and attitudes. Bonilla-Silva's book, Racism without Racists, contains an...