ABSTRACT

When non-white or mixed race spaces increase in real or potential value they can become majority white spaces through racial gentrification or white power brokers using legal means to re-whiten these spaces. This study examines how institutional racism was used by white government officials in a city in the US Midwest to shut down twelve minority bars and restaurants and do so through ostensibly race neutral, colorblind legal maneuvers. White officials enforced code violations against non-white establishments while ignoring similar violations in white owned establishment in an act of racial laundering or taking a blatantly racist act and using legalese to sanitize and present non-racist arguments for irrefutably racist acts. The chapter demonstrates how colorblind narratives are used by government actors to engage in racist actions and maintain white spaces.