With race bubbling to the surface in almost every context, the public is increasingly having a hard time talking about it openly, honestly and in a way that is useful. Too often we push race to the side because talking about it makes us feel uncomfortable or even worse because we don't want to be called a racist. To avoid these conversations, people are adopting a rhetoric towards "Color Blindness" where they declare that they do not see race at all, or that a person's race has no meaning, and that they treat everyone the same regardless of color.
That's all good and well. We should treat everyone the same regardless of color, but being "Color Blind" is not only ridiculous, it's damaging.
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To be "Color Blind" isn't something anyone should be aspiring to, and claiming to be "Color Blind" is embracing an ignorance to race, because here's the thing, you can't erase someone's race. You can't miraculously be blind to it. You can't wake up and fail to realize the person sitting on the bus across from you is Black or Hispanic or Asian, or whatever.
Unfortunately a refusal to acknowledge race doesn't make it go away. You need to recognize race and be comfortable talking about it. Race isn't dirty. It isn't something to be afraid of, and it's definitely not something to be blind to.
When you erase race, you erase entire people by failing to realize it's a part of who they are. Many of our identities are surrounded by race. It speaks to our heritage, our culture, our history and everything in between. A failure to recognize race is nothing more than a failure to recognize people. It brings us back to the original issue - fear of race.
How can you talk about race productively if you can't even acknowledge it? How can you understand racial issues if you are "Color Blind" to what's going on around you because you believe we're all the same? Being "Color Blind" creates the notion that we should treat everyone the same because we are all the same. But guess what? We're not the same.
Some of us don't have the privilege of ignoring race. It stares us in the mirror, it dictates how society treats us and it's a part of who we are. Race is race. Don't be afraid of it, don't run from it and don't be blind to it. A blindness to race is nothing more than ignorance of reality.
