So these past few years,
I've often come across a phrase I don't see color or I'm colorblind.
And what people mean to say by this
is that they treat everybody the same way and that they ignore skin color.
My question to you is,
do you think it makes sense to ignore skin color and treat everybody the same?
Or do you think it makes sense
to acknowledge that we all look very different and even cherish that
we can bring such different perspectives to the conversation?
Does it make sense to ignore color
and treat everybody the same?
Is that even possible?
Well, I don't think so.
Think of racism as the problem.
It is often said that the diagnosis of a problem is part of the solution.
And very often that is where we get it wrong.
Julian Bond once said:
“If you ignore color, then you ignore the consequences of color.
Racial colorblindness would have been
a perfect ideology, would not run to the core.
Here's why race is not the problem.
Racism is.
Now we can argue for our shared humanity,
but race does exist
and so does our skin color.
And it comes with differences.
Biologically, it probably has no justification, but
we created the social construct racism,
just like we created money.
The question is,
does money affect your life?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Problems do not magically disappear when we don't acknowledge them.
Colorblindness, in isolation
has no direct effects on social
or structural racism.
But this social construct
called racism is the system.
And that system benefits some people at the expense of others.
This right here.
This is the problem.
Ignoring this means dismissing the lived
experiences of people of color and the trauma
that is perpetuated within our racist system.
Colorblindness cannot fix the problem.
But here is what can:
How about we put in the work and the effort to incorporate
racial sensitivity in our laws to change the system?