Dear “Colorblind” people,

[MrScorpio]

Sciences says you’re probably racist:

http://news.illinois.edu/news/10/0421online.html

“If you subscribe to a color-blind racial ideology, you don’t think that race or racism exists, or that it should exist,” Tynes said. “You are more likely to think that people who talk about race and racism are the ones who perpetuate it. You think that racial problems are just isolated incidents and that people need to get over it and move on. You’re also not very likely to support affirmative action, and probably have a lower multi-cultural competence.”

http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/cou/47/1/59/

The purpose of this investigation was to develop a conceptually grounded scale to assess cognitive aspects of color-blind racial attitudes. Five studies on the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS) with over 1,100 observations provide initial reliability and validity data. Specifically, results from an exploratory factor analysis suggest a 3-factor solution: Unawareness of Racial Privilege, Institutional Discrimination, and Blatant Racial Issues. A confirmatory factor analysis suggests that the 3-factor model is a good fit of the data and is the best of the competing models. The CoBRAS was positively related to other indexes of racial attitudes as well as 2 measures of belief in a just world, indicating that greater endorsement of color-blind racial attitudes was related to greater levels of racial prejudice and a belief that society is just and fair. Self-reported CoBRAS attitudes were sensitive to diversity training.

If you really don’t want don’t want to be racist, you should actively discuss race and racial privilege. It is especially important that you discuss race if you’re a parent or work with kids, because it will help children to be more aware of social issues.

http://ladyatheist.tumblr.com/post/23400847161/dear-colorblind-people

[Behind the Aegis]

1. Makes sense to me.

I always despised people saying they were "colorblind." I understand, in some respects, what they were trying to relay, but in reality, it also meant they were ignoring a reality which should never be ignored.

[MrScorpio]

3. The key to respecting each other's cultures and colors is to recognize them...

If we deny that any differences exist, then we stand to deny the important aspects that make up each of us.

[Behind the Aegis]

6. Exactly.

Pretending differences don't exist doesn't make it so.

[EFerrari]

2. That whole attitude and the idea that talking about racism is racist

strikes me as some version of the "no talk" rule that dysfunctional families inflict on their members to suppress their irrational shame.

[MrScorpio]

4. Exactly

I feel the same way

[EFerrari]

5. It works like an erasure, a denial of being.

Coincidentally, I've been listening to Henry Louis Gates tonight. He brings up the silliness of the idea that Africans were just sitting around their "dark continent" waiting to be engaged by Europe and his last book debunks that just as Charles Mann's "1493" deals with what was happening on this continent at contact.

But that is the impression kids get in school. Both Africans and native Americans were just sitting around doing nothing until some Europeans showed up. Which erases two huge groups, their history and cultures and is about as rational as thinking that if you close your eyes, nobody can see you.

[Suji to Seoul]

7. let's examine this

everything this article says is not me. i actively discuss the inequalities between races. i don't believe racism should exist, but it does in all directions, not just white racist towards minorities, but minority racism toward the majority and intra-racial racism.

I accept this idea.

I believe all racist ideas are institutionalized in us at young ages and are not isolated.

Yet, when i am with people, i look at them as people and nothing else. I would classify myself as colorblind.

Am I racist for that attitude?

[Scootaloo]

9. No, your assumption is just wrong.

You perceive race. You see racial issues. You acknowledge and interact with racist attitudes and preconceptions. You realize that these biases have been beaten into all of us since an early age.

What you describe is not you being "colorblind." What you describe is you actively denying the racist training you've been getting since day one. When you interact with people, you know and understand that they are a different race from yourself (or maybe they aren't, you recognize that too) but you make a conscious decision to ignore the years of bias and preconception that have been pounded into your head regarding people of their ethnicity.

If you were "colorblind," you would not acknowledge race-based issues, much less understand them (or even try to understand them.) You'd see someone talking about racism, tell yourself that "there are no races!" and then chide the speaker for being racist.

[Suji to Seoul]

11. so, if i am understanding this completely, colorblind people only see the color brown

because their heads are up their asses most of the time and the shit get in their eyes and taints their vision? Am I right?

[Scootaloo]

12. No, you're not

Technically, it's too dark inside one's colon to distinguish colors at all.

[Scootaloo]

8. It's always driven me up the wall

"I don't see race; I just see people"

First, I find it worth noting that I have ONLY ever heard this from white people. Maybe other people's experiences are different, but that's mine. And it's always said with an air of smug superiority, the same way born-again types say "I'll pray for you." It's a self-congratulatory putdown. It amounts to white people telling everyone else that their race is inconsequential, that everyone is really just like the (white) speaker. if everyone else insists there are differences, well obviously something is wrong with them.

Or maybe it's just honest-to-god cluelessness. White people don't have their whiteness shoved in front of them every day to remind them of the fact that they are caucasians. So many of us seem to just buy into the idea that we are a nondescript "default" setting for humanity. To them there's no such thing as "whiteness," so there must not be any such thing as "blackness" or "Indian-ness" or the like, and anyone who says otherwise must be (gasp!) racist.

This outlook - whatever its origins in an individual - do more harm to the cause of anti-racism than anything else, I think. it allows people to cuddle up in their own complacency, and believe that since nobody's burning crosses in their neighborhood, that racism is dead - except for Al Sharpton, who keeps talking about black people being black (what a racist!)

I think this comic sums up my feelings on the notion quite well;
[img][/img]

[BlueIris]

10. Nice. nt

[MrScorpio]

13. Damn skippy! nt

[cali]

14. wait a minute; so if you don't think racism should exist, you're racist?

I buy that if you don't think racism exists you're probably racist, but I sure as shit don't buy that if you don't think racism should exist, you're probably a racist. Furthermore, I don't think that one study equates to Science dictating it.

[Scootaloo]

15. That's not what's being said

"Colorblind" thinking falls far closer to what you start out saying - it's the belief that there is no race, and thus no racism. Everyone is just like you and those who insist otherwise are the "damaged" ones. it's a self-delusion that allows the deluded person to blithely ignore racial issues, or even attack the victims of racism or anti-racists for daring to even broach the topic.

Sadly this sort of thinking seems pretty prevalent even in progressive communities; did you see this stuff happening on DU regarding the Trayvon Martin case? I did. There was a lot of "race has nothing to do with it" and "There you go, playing the race card!" attitude coming from those threads.

[cali]

20. but that is what's being said:

“If you subscribe to a color-blind racial ideology, you don’t think that race or racism exists, or that it should exist,”

And no a didn't see very much of what you noted in threads about Trayvon Martin, but I didn't go into every thread and read every comment.

[Scootaloo]

23. It's a bit of selective reading on your part, I think

Even taken as you are taking it - "I don't think racism should exist" - such a position is STILL deluded, for the simple fact that racism DOES exist, whether you want it to or not. Saying "I don't think it should exist" does absolutely nothing to fix the problem, it's simply an ego-pat for people who think it makes them especially enlightened.

You wouldn't have needed to go into every thread and read every comment, of course. I think we can conclude our discussion for the evening now.

[MrScorpio]

17. Check this out:

In a study that examined the associations between responses to racial theme party images on social networking sites and a color-blind racial ideology, Brendesha Tynes, a professor of educational psychology and of African American studies at Illinois, discovered that white students and those who rated highly in color-blind racial attitudes were more likely not to be offended by images from racially themed parties at which attendees dressed and acted as caricatures of racial stereotypes (for example, photos of students dressed in blackface make-up attending a “gangsta party” to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day).

“People who reported higher racial color-blind attitudes were more likely to be white, and more likely to condone or not be bothered by racial-theme party images,” Tynes said. “In fact, some even encouraged the photos by adding comments of their own such as ‘Where’s the Colt 45?’ or ‘Party like a rock star.’ ”

So the answer to your question is "Yes"… By not recognizing one's own or someone else's racism or racist language and deeds, it is a form of racism in itself. This is the problem that comes with people who deny that certain things as actually racist when they blatantly are. The same goes for false equivalencies that seek to justify racist attitudes by the carriers.

[Behind the Aegis]

21. I think the "it" refers to "color-blind racial ideology."

It is an oddly phrased sentence, but if you read it with the "it" replaced with what I believe it to be, it makes more sense.

“If you subscribe to a color-blind racial ideology, you don’t think that race or racism exists, or that color-blind racial ideology should exist,” Tynes said. “You are more likely to think that people who talk about race and racism are the ones who perpetuate it.

ETA: The phrase following the term "color-blind racial ideology", separated by the commas, is actually describing "color-blind racial ideology." I am probably not writing this any better than the author, but I am reading this as "If you subscribe to color-blind racial ideology, definition of previous term, or believe that "color-blind racial ideology" should exist...."

2nd edit...missed a word on my part

[ibegurpard]

16. everyone is racist

what matters is whether you question your preconceptions or blindly let them rule your actions.

[Scootaloo]

22. That's it exactly

Unfortunately, in the current state of our society, there is no such thing as "not racist."

There's just racists, some of whom make varying efforts to be anti-racist.

[Jim Lane]

27. A few weeks ago I got flamed here for discussing my own racial prejudice.

I thought it was fairly obvious that there's some prejudice even among those of us who hold racial equality as an ideal. In discussing prejudice (in a thread that started out being about homophobia), I wrote in part:

Speaking of blacks, I, as a white person, do detect in myself some racial stereotyping. I blame it on the culture in which I was raised, but the sad fact is that I have at least a bit of a tendency to consider blacks to be less intelligent. That’s not sensible, on my part, but there it is. Now, is my admission to that failing a racist statement? I say it isn’t.

(My post at http://www.democraticunderground.com/124087062#post67 and full thread at http://www.democraticunderground.com/124087062 for people with a lot of time on their hands)

To my surprise, though, most of the comments there were hostile. At least one person alerted my post as "extremely racist" (http://www.democraticunderground.com/124087062#post141).

I'm not sure you're right that everyone is racist. There are probably some exceptions. I do completely agree with you that the real question is "whether you question your preconceptions or blindly let them rule your actions." To that end, admitting to your preconceptions makes it less likely that they will rule or even affect your actions.

[azurnoir]

18. lol on the money

and I must add that almost without fail when I have heard those words uttered it's by someone usually white who has just said or done something that 'could' be considered -racist

[limpyhobbler]

19. In my experience people who say they don't see race are deluding themselves.

I think you would have to deliberately chose to ignore race to somehow not see it. And if you ignore race, that means you are ignoring racism too, I think.

It's quite convenient to be colorblind all of a sudden after centuries of race-based theft and discrimination where all the benefits went to one race.

Now that people have stopped accepting that kind of theft and are pointing it out, trying to take back some of what was stolen, it's not at all surprising that some people in the dominant group want everyone to be colorblind.

Some other people sincerely want to be colorblind I guess, because they want to live out MLK's dream where people are judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

It's a worthy goal and I respect people who take that attitude if they are sincere, but mostly I think it involves a heavy dose of self-delusion at best. At its worst the "colorblind" attitude ends up being one of the biggest enforcers of racism.

Is it ironic that not seeing race can make you a huge racist? Yeah, that's funny, but it's true. But not all the time. Just usually. Glad I could clear that up for everyone. You're welcome.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

24. I think studies that do this sort of blanket crap are more harmful to racial issues than they are h

Personally, if you're nice and cool to me, I am in return. I do try to be color blind when meeting people and getting to know them. That doesn't automatically mean that I am not a supporter of affirmative action or think that minorities aren't trampled on by the majority. It just means I try to judge people by their character and not the color of their skin. But the first time they show me they're complete idiots, I'm moving on, regardless of what "race" you belong to. I took to heart in my biology class that race doesn't exist and most biology books only mention race to say that it is a sociological construct more than a biological one. That being said, understanding that there is a shared culture is entirely different than being color blind. I can be color blind and not judge people by the color of their skin, while understanding that the person standing in front of me is from India and has a culture to be understood and respected.
One, question, though: Is it racist to dislike people who perpetuate the bad stereotypes of whatever "race" they belong to?

[krispos42]

26. What I first thought of when I saw your subject line

And yet, it's appropriate!