Can’t we All just be Colourblind?

Colour blindness, or colour vision deficiency, is the inability or decreased ability to see colour, or perceive colour differences, under normal lighting conditions. Colour blindness affects a significant percentage of the population. There is no actual blindness but there is a deficiency of colour vision. [WikiThePedia]

In a practical sense, what this often means is that people who are colour blind struggle to see the difference between red and green. At a traffic light, red means stop and green means go and so not being able to discern between stop and go feels like it could be a biggie. i guess in that case knowing that red is the one at the top and green is the one at the bottom is quite a lot of help.

THE QUEST FOR COLOURBLINDNESS

On a regular basis, in the ongoing conversations i have been having on race, someone will inevitably say, “I don’t see colour, I just see people. Can’t we all just be colour blind.”

In fact, i made a statement the other day suggesting that we needing to be Colour Aware as opposed to colour blind and John immediately shot back with:

I think being more colour aware is the last thing we as Christians in South Africa need. [John]

You know, “Can’t we all just get along?”, “Can’t people stop bringing up race?” and other questions that end up in that same file.

What is interesting to me – and quite significant perhaps – is that typically [not always, John, but mostly] i have found that it is white people who bring up the colourblindness question. The ones who were directly the least affected [or at least the least negatively affected] by race are the ones who think we should stop focusing on it so much.

Here is why i, and some other people, believe that is unhelpful.

COLOURBLINDNESS CONTRIBUTES TO RACISM

Let’s first hear from some other people on the matter:

People love to tell me that they often forget that I’m black. They say this with a sort of “a-ha!” look on their faces, as if their dawning ability to see my blackness was a gift to us both.

When I point out that their eyesight had never left them, that my skin has never changed colors, and that they probably did not really forget that I am black, they inevitably get defensive. First, they try to argue that it was a compliment; the smart ones quickly realize that complimenting someone on not being black is actually pretty racist, so they switch gears.

I don’t see race! is usually their next tactic, followed by I am colorblind, though they never give credit to Stephen Colbert. By “colorblind” they don’t actually mean that they can’t see green or red; rather, they are suggesting that they can’t ever be racist, because they don’t register skin color at all.

This ideology is very popular – like a racial utopic version of the Golden Rule – but it’s actually quite racist. “Colorblindness” doesn’t acknowledge the very real ways in which racism has existed and continues to exist, both in individuals and systemically. By professing not to see race, you’re just ignoring racism, not solving it. [Zach Stafford]

That was an excerpt from an article titled, ‘When you say you “don’t see race”, you’re ignoring racism, not helping to solve it’.

This next extract from an article by Monnica T Williams, ‘Colorblind Ideology is a form of Racism’ is written to an American perspective but the same principles relate to us:

Let’s break it down into simple terms: Color-Blind = “People of color — we don’t see you (at least not that bad ‘colored’ part).” As a person of color, I like who I am, and I don’t want any aspect of that to be unseen or invisible. The need for colorblindness implies there is something shameful about the way God made me and the culture I was born into that we shouldn’t talk about. Thus, colorblindness has helped make race into a taboo topic that polite people cannot openly discuss. And if you can’t talk about it, you can’t understand it, much less fix the racial problems that plague our society.

What is racial colorblindness?

Racial issues are often uncomfortable to discuss and rife with stress and controversy. Many ideas have been advanced to address this sore spot in the American psyche. Currently, the most pervasive approach is known ascolorblindness. Colorblindness is the racial ideology that posits the best way to end discrimination is by treating individuals as equally as possible, without regard to race, culture, or ethnicity.

At its face value, colorblindness seems like a good thing — really taking MLK seriously on his call to judge people on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. It focuses on commonalities between people, such as their shared humanity.

However, colorblindness alone is not sufficient to heal racial wounds on a national or personal level. It is only a half-measure that in the end operates as a form of racism.

Monnica goes on to suggest what she sees as a healthy alternative:

The alternative to colorblindness is multiculturalism, an ideology that acknowledges, highlights, and celebrates ethnoracial differences. It recognizes that each tradition has something valuable to offer. It is not afraid to see how others have suffered as a result of racial conflict or differences.

So, how do we become multicultural? The following suggestions would make a good start (McCabe, 2011):

1. Recognizing and valuing differences,
2. Teaching and learning about differences, and
3. Fostering personal friendships and organizational alliances

Moving from colorblindness to multiculturalism is a process of change, and change is never easy, but we can’t afford to stay the same.

Lastly Jon Greenberg, in his article, ‘7 Reasons Why ‘Colorblindess’ Contributes to Racism Instead of Solves It’, the reasons he gives [and please go and read the whole article to see them broken down individually] are:

1. Colorblindness Invalidates People’s Identities

2. Colorblindness Invalidates Racist Experiences

3. Colorblindness Narrows White Americans’ Understanding of the World and Leads to Disconnection

4. Colorblindness Equates Color with Something Negative

5. Colorblindness Hinders Tracking Racial Disparities

6. Colorblindness Is Disingenuous

If you are saying “I don’t see color; I just people,” I’m sorry, but I just don’t believe you.

Essentially, you are saying that that you don’t notice any difference between Lupita Nyong’o and, say, Anne Hathaway, two similarly aged actresses who I’m betting have never been confused for each other. They are both just people, exactly the same.

Really? Again, I just don’t believe you. And Idris Elba playing James Bond won’t ruffle any feathers, right? (Just like no one noticed when he played a Norse god in Thor.)

Was it really just openly racist people who objected to these casting choices or were they joined by proponents of colorblindness?

Or when you see a group of Black youth walking toward you on the sidewalk, you feel the exact same feeling as when it’s group of White youth?

Though the concept of race is a social construct and ever changing, let’s just be honest that those of us who can see really do see the physical differences (skin, hair, eye shape) commonly associated with what we call “race.” If you are choosing colorblindness to avoid being racist, you have chosen the wrong strategy.

7. Colorblind Ideology Is a Form of Racism

Colorblindness is far more of a threat to racial justice than White Supremacists (who seem to be quite color conscious). After all, if you can’t discuss a problem, how can you ever solve it?

As Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun famously wrote, “To overcome racism, one must first take race into account.”

WHY I THINK COLOUR BLINDNESS IS UNHELPFUL

Some of these things have been mentioned or alluded to above, but here are some of the thoughts i have on this:

[1] Suggesting ‘Colourblindness’ as a solution is a way for people to avoid talking about race and the very real problems we have with it in South Africa. After all if no one sees colour then there can’t be any more racism right? Problem solved. But i think more honestly it can be a way to avoid difficult, awkward, painful and necessary conversations.

[2] The James Bond example above is a great one [and it doesn’t sit well with me to consider a non-white James Bond either – something happens there – cos James Bond is white, yo] and if you go back not too long ago in Hollywood, if you were a person of colour in a movie then you were most likely the bad guy or the help. That. Was. It. Now imagine as a person of colour growing up and watching movies and the person you most identify with is the villian… or the person who is serving everyone else.

As a white guy growing up i could identify with the hero, with the love interest, with the scientist about to save the world, with the adventurer or the sage or the chief wizard or the king. Heck, let’s be brutally honest here and say that as a white guy growing up i could identify with Jesus in the movies – you know the middle eastern guy born in Bethlehem…

As a white person, we dismiss this so easily because it has never affected us. Try for a moment to put yourself in the other person’s shoes on this.

[3] The moment i go colourblind i feel like i lose the best of you. i loved what Monnica said about Multiculturalism which:

acknowledges, highlights, and celebrates ethnoracial differences. It recognizes that each tradition has something valuable to offer.

That is what i long to see. What richness in tradition, culture, style [and let’s be honest, dance moves] do black people bring to the table? What about coloured people [best gatsby ever the other night, let’s NOT lose that, please!] and indian people? As we all all the foreigners from other countries who have settled here and called South Africa home? The image of the Rainbow Nation seems to have been quite tarnished in recent times as a hope we were fed that hasn’t really come to fruition, but what about the image of a melting pot? Like a stew of richness where each of us adds our ingredient to the pot. That idea for me is so much richer than trying to pretend that everyone looks the same and doesn’t bring any difference to be celebrated, enjoyed and learned from.

[4] If we embrace colourblindness then we will likely miss out on bringing greater balance, and justice, to our land, which is desperately needed. In a country where violence was distributed in so many ways based on race, for us to live in a land where the repercussions of that can still be seen, felt and experienced, for us to call for colourblindness says in some huge way, that none of that stuff mattered – that we should just get over it and start again and pretend it didn’t happen. Which might be a lot easier to do if the playing fields were levelled. But even with a growing black middle class, the majority of the money in this country is still in the hands of white people and the majority of the poverty is still in the lives of black people. By acknowledging race, it afford us the opportunity to continue to work in the areas of wrong that have not been properly addressed and hopefully bring us all a little closer to where we need to be.

i’m sure there is more, but that is a good start and hopefully something for you to think about if you were someone who has been calling for colourblindness.

Edit: i just found this quote today which i think sums up everything i was trying to so perfectly:

“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences.” [Audre Lorde]

What other ways can you think of that adopting an attitude of ‘Colourblindness’ becomes really unhelpful for? Let’s have some healthy engagement in the comments section below. 

[A helpful followup piece to this might be the piece i wrote a short while back about really Seeing people, click here]

[The next once we’ve embraced Multiculturalism is to start to get to really Know, click here]