ABSTRACT
We challenge the contact hypothesis as a theoretical framework by demonstrating
that, in today’s era of colorblind racism, contact with blacks is not a particularly
progressive racial change agent for many whites. By comparing two qualitative data sets
of white antiracists and whites who have a close black friend, we find there are a good
number of whites for whom relationships with people of color are not the prime impetus
for becoming antiracist. Whites often bracket out their black friend from their limited
understandings of racism, and white antiracists often adopt progressive ideologies from
other whites. Our most important point, of great political significance, is that progressive
racial change today comes from bearers of antiracist ideology (the “message”) who may
or may not be persons of color (the assumed “messengers”.) We conclude by discussing
the implications of our findings for “token” diversification of institutions and alternative
ways of implementing progressive racial change that do not merely depend on black
“bodies” as symbols alone.
Convention