COLOR BLINDNESS
More and more people have been fostering the strategy of color-blind society over the years, making it a hot topic for discussion. Champions of racial color-blindness claim that disregarding all cultural differences will make society thriving because people will establish their interpersonal relationships based on their character and personality rather than their race. However, adversaries advocate the idea that the color-blind approach has far-reaching consequences that, in fact, impede the move toward equality. When people concentrate on not seeing color, they are liable not to see discrimination. Moreover, color blindness erases the fundamental part of people’s identity and self-love (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDJcjasFzBI).
Color blindness is, indeed, controversial, and for now, I want to put aside sharing my speculations about the issue and become just a neutral observer to share with you two opposite viewpoints. Today I came across a ted-talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqvZRO2LPmw), in which Traci O’Neal Ellis (a reputable Chicago-area attorney and HR professional www.instagram.com/traciellisspeakerauthor/) dwells on whether racial color blindness bolsters or alleviates racism. Here is her vantage point on the problem.
“The failure to see color obscures racism and, therefore, perpetuates it. The late Civil Rights activist Julian Bond once said ‘If you are blind to color, then you are blind to the consequences of color.’ So, if you can’t see color, then you don’t see how systems operate in this country to the detriment of people of color because of our color. If you fail to see me as a black woman in America, then you fail really to see me, you miss all of who I am. Being black informs my perspectives. It is the lens through which I see the world. It is how I navigate every day, and it forms the basis for many of my experiences in this country. Color blindness obscures racism, systemic racism, and, therefore, perpetuates it. So, what do we do about this problem? How do we undo the notion that colorblindness is a noble pursuit? How do we undo the damage done by color blindness, obscuring of systemic racism and perpetuation of systems of oppression?
So, HBO came to my community recently to film a documentary on the community policing program and the relationship between the police and the community. In preparation for coming to town for that documentary, they contacted people, and they contacted a white woman and asked her if she would be interviewed about the relationship between the community and the police and about our community policing program. Now, this white woman could have told a very lovely story of her zero interactions with the police but instead, because she is color-conscious rather than color-blind, she referred the producers to me, and they called, invited me to an interview, and I was able to speak to some of the black community’s experiences with the police and in turn refer the producers to other black folks, who could paint the story of black people’s relationships and interactions with the police. This white woman’s color consciousness led her to allow our stories to be told. Rather than speak for us, over us or ignore us, she chose to amplify our voices and our stories. She knew that if she were to tell her story and the stories of her white friends and her white circle then the truth could be obscured; the hard truth that in most communities of this country there is some level of tension between the police and the black community; and to obscure that truth would perpetuate that truth.
At the heart of that story is a white woman who continuously seeks to be actively curious about the experiences of black folk and people of color, so that she can be an ally rather than a hindrance. And that, I think, is the key for us collectively to begin to dismantle the systemic racism. We cannot attack this vicious animal called systemic racism by assuming we are all the same but rather by being actively curious about our differences.”
To sum up, the woman opposes color blindness since it is an incentive for the exacerbation of racism. Instead, she promotes multiculturalism where racial differences are acknowledged and celebrated.
In a week, we will take a look at the other side of the coin. Stay tuned!
