"Color Blindness is the New Racism"

Stop Saying "You're Colorblind," When You're Just Racist.

Articles

"Color Blindness is the New Racism"; Raising Awareness about Privilege Using Color Insight by Margalynne J. Armstrong & Stephanie M. Wildman

"Why you should stop saying "all lives matter," explained in 9 different ways by German Lopez

Colorblind Racism

    Armstrong and Wildman discuss the issues that come from "colorblindness" throughout their work. Color blindness is the term that many white people use as a way to make it seem as though they accept people of all races, but in reality "Seeking colorblindness means Whites fail to see how whiteness has privileged them in so many societal interactions" (p. 66). So often white people don't even acknowledge race and the privilege and power that they hold just from being white. I know that I have heard white people, some that I know well, say they are colorblind. Before reading this text, I had some knowledge of what this term really meant, though I never took it upon myself to look into it more. Maybe that was the "luxury of obliviousness" that Allan Johnson discussed in his work "Privilege, Power, and Difference." I am now aware that I should have immediately looked up the term and corrected this person, who now I can truly see is a racist. Colorblindness essentially is a way for the dominant race, that being white, to avoid the separation and inequality of other races. Instead of colorblindness, the author's suggest as human's, specifically white humans, should utilize "color insight." "Color insight admits that most of us do see race and underlines the need to understand what the racial awareness might mean" (p. 67) and it "contrasts with colorblindness by offering an alternative that better serves the purported goals of colorblindness: racial equality and justice" (p. 68). 

    

    Similarly to Johnson and Lisa Delpit's work, Armstrong and Wildman suggest that in order for change to happen regarding racial equality, white people need to be able to listen, understand, analyze, and discuss the experiences of non-white people along with the inequality that there is between races. One way of starting to do this is by looking at "The Diversity Wheel," as Johnson discusses (p. 18). By looking at this wheel, you can identify the areas that bring you privilege, whether it's race, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, etc. Armstrong and Wildman give the activity of using the "Power Line Chart" (p. 72) which is very similar to the Diversity Wheel, it looks at various descriptions that may place you above  the power line or below it, representing the different privilege one may have along with the oppression they may face. The authors state "No person is purely privileged or unprivileged; we are privileged in respect to some categories and not privileged in respect to others" (p. 71). 

The Diversity Wheel

As mentioned earlier, "Whites often do not think about race and racial justice, except when they notice people of color are present" (p. 66). Basically until there is someone that is not white around a white person, they don't acknowledge race because they are the "norm," the "dominant" race. So often white people get offended when the topic of race comes up because they don't see a need to discuss it as "All lives matter" (German Lopez, p. 1). Lopez goes on to give 9 different reasons why this just another example of white privilege and white people immediately misunderstanding what it really means when people say "Black Lives Matter." The phrase "Black Lives Matter" is not to say that black people are superior than other races, it is "simply pointing out that black people's lives are relatively undervalued in the US - and more likely to be ended by police" (p. 2). The fact that so many white people get so offended by this phrase just shows how much privilege and power they have along with ignorance and obliviousness. As a white person, it is uncomfortable to talk about race simply due to the fact I have to be part of this awful group of people who do awful things to non-whites. That's not to say other races don't do awful things, but it just shows that our country is still so stuck in the pre Civil War mindset that whites are superior, which just simply is not true. As white people we need to take accountability for the actions, violence, and inequality that WE have done, and look at how we can fix it. "Healing begins by listening to those voices and stories" of the non-white communities. If we are going to say "All Lives Matter" then actions need to show that this is true. Actions speak louder than words.