So, I was on YouTube the other day and I came across an old video of a Morgan Freeman interview on “60 Minutes.” He was basically telling the guy that he doesn’t believe in Black History Month because he said that black history is American history and shouldn’t be reduced to one single month. Now, when he said that, in my mind I was like “Yeah Morgan Freeman you tell him!” Then it kind of took a turn for the worst.
The interviewer asked Mr. Freeman how we end racism and he said, “Simple, we stop talking about it. I’ll stop acknowledging you as a white man if you stop acknowledging me as a black man.” Now, I know there are some people that might have a problem with what he might have just said, but that statement doesn’t sit right in my stomach. So guess what today’s lesson in class is going to be about kids? Color blindness!
Before we begin today’s lesson, let’s first acknowledge what color blindness is. Color blindness is the term people use to acknowledge that they don’t see “race or color” because they see everyone as equal. There are probably some people right now that are thinking, “Well what’s so bad about that? Isn’t that how we should look at people to begin with?” Sure it is. In a perfect world, I think that’s actually how it should be. There’s just one little problem….WE DON’T LIVE IN A PERFECT WORLD! Look, I wish we could all look past each other’s skin colors and not see race, but that’s kind of hard to do if you have two eyes and aren’t blind.
The term color blindness is so weird to me because it’s just strange to look at someone and ignore the fact that they are a different race or color than you. Like seriously? You do have eyes, right? They do work, right? There’s nothing wrong with noticing someone’s race or skin color when you first meet them. Now, when you treat them differently in a disrespectful manner, that’s when we have a big problem. But you know what’s even worse than that? When people try to tell minorities that they should be color blind like them.
I’ve heard so many white people in color ask me why I wasn’t color blind or why I refuse to look at it that way. One time a white person said, “Well maybe racism wouldn’t be such a big deal anymore if black people stopped bringing it up.” “Wait…huuuuhhh (Lil Uzi Vert voice).” I’m sorry, that has got to be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. Just because black people don’t bring up racism doesn’t stop the fact that it can still happen. That’s like if you go a whole day without eating food, no matter how much you tell yourself you’re not hungry, at the end of the day your stomach will continue to growl. Sorry, that’s just the way it is.
So, can we just all do ourselves a favor and stop using the term color blindness, or better yet stop telling minorities to be color blind, because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter where a black person grew up at, whether it is in the city or in the suburbs, in some shape or form they will know what racism is. It’s impossible for minorities to not see race in a country that constantly reminds us of our race. Maybe white people have that advantage of not seeing color, but black people, we don’t because truthfully it can be dangerous. Peace.
