Dear “Colorblind” people,

[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]