{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.022608695652173914, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 5.276363636363636, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Decolonizing a Discipline: Rethinking Sociology in a Changing World

In the past decade, we have witnessed increasing reports of institutional and interpersonal violence against bodies of color across the nation. There have been many suggestions on why this has continued to occur. Some have argued that fear of change—where immigrant and minority populations supposedly overwhelm the inhabitants of average, “nice” communities—has increased anxieties that contribute to volatile race relations. Another popular narrative uses significant political milestones—like the election of a black president—to argue that racism is over (or overplayed) and that overly sensitive people actually are contributing to racism by talking about its presumably fake existence. In other versions of this color-blind racist ideology, accidental or mere coincidences unrelated to race (“this could have been avoided if they were just more polite”) or a call for us to rally together as a nation (“Put that far-way past behind you and choose to live in the present”). There are so many flavors of color-blind racism that it is sometimes hard to distinguish its tastes as overt racial inequities like when police violence or traumatic scenes of discrimination are circulated in throughout the media. These inequalities, which are made visceral as we watch Brown and black bodies be murdered and again as many of their murderers are set free with excuses that make little to no sense, are vibrant, distressing, and gripping. Yet, even in these moments, those using pseudoscience or individualistic arguments continue to claim that racialized inequality does not exist in ways that should be thought of as significant, systemic, or even newsworthy.