Conspiracy

I recently re-listened to a song by Gang Starr called "Conspiracy" (link). It suddenly became apparent to me that what the artist was trying to convey was not just contemporary racism, but the color-blind contemporary racism as described by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva in "Racism without Racists."

Color-blind racism was described by Bonilla-Silva as a type of racism that is subtly carried out under the defense that the circumstances influenced the decision, not matters of ethnicity. In "Conspiracy," the artist describes the world black people (specifically those of low-income families) live in and how it is stacked against them. He even mentions examples such as "The SAT is not geared for the lower class"and "every time there's violence shown in the media usually it's a black thing." The song touches on how the educational system, media and general mentality of America is against black people, despite the fact that none of the aforementioned examples are specifically against black people. The artist is trying to point out that the government would like everyone to believe that the reason black people and other minorities get the short end of the stick in general is merely a coincidence. "Conspiracy" gives us some incite into how modern racism manifests today.