Not seeing color, or racial colorblindness, is not okay. It’s an insult to every person of color. I once had a friend approach me and tell me that they, "did not see color", and had only just realized that I was African Americans.
What they really said, what I heard, was, "Due to my indisputable whiteness, I am able to walk through life with little to no issues, with regards to my skin color. I have decided that because I can do it, everyone else should too. To this end, I have decided to actively deny your color, culture and as such, the experiences that being a person of color create so that you can fit into the box I have created for the world. Aren’t I so daring!"
People everywhere have been proudly proclaiming their racial colorblindness, yet they do not seem to understand that though they may choose not to see color, the rest of the world still does. They cannot expect a person of color to have the same experiences as them because they don’t really live in the same world. A person of color’s world is infinitely harder, simply because of the color of their skin. This is not a complaint, it is an indisputable fact. By refusing to understand that racially colorblind people are invalidating the struggles and experiences of people of color everywhere, they are refusing to really see the world they live in. They are essentially closing their eyes and petulantly demanding everyone just be friends.
A study conducted by two Princeton professors found that “For every 10 white men without convictions who got a job offer or callback, more than 7 white men with prison records also did...But the difference grew far larger for black applicants: For every 10 black men without criminal convictions, only about 3 with records got offers or callbacks.”
Besides the utter disrespect displayed in this tweet, those who know little about African American history might not understand the weight held by the word boy in this tweet. Back when white men would refer to black men as "boy," it was meant to demean and diminish them. They used the word to deny the manhood of black men, to further take away any respect they had garnered for themselves. The fact that in 2016 a white man would dare refer to a grown black man as "boy" is so eye-opening about the times we live in. Not only is it extremely racist but so indicative of the fact that in over sixty years, we have yet to truly progress as a culture. The irony of their reactions is that, following a loss to the New Orleans Saints in Super Bowl 44, Peyton Manning stormed off the field without even shaking hands with the other quarterback or any of his opponents. His actions were described as a display of how much he wanted to win the game, not a sign of disrespect of poor sportsmanship. Can you spot the difference?
The point is simply that people cannot claim to be racially colorblind simply because race does not affect their daily lives. There is a much deeper problem than choosing not to see race, they are ignoring a social system that is actively working against people of color. By not seeing color they are choosing to pretend that the world is fair and everyone is treated equally when we know that is not true. I offer another option. Open your eyes. Don’t be willfully ignorant, be willfully angry. Why shouldn’t the world be equal, why shouldn’t everyone have the same rights? Learn about the issues in your world and DO something about them. Be an ally. Because the fact is, if you are not fighting for the struggle, you are fighting against it. As Desmond Tutu said, "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."
