I agree with a lot of what you said, but I think it’s important that we realize that everyone IS different from the person next to them, and that this just may be because of something they’ve experienced because of pigmentation, sex, or preference.

These conversations are always so interesting, because I feel like I come away torn between breaking down categories/binaries on a micro level, and still needing them in the world for the larger macro-level. So complex.

One of the only things we can do is talk like this about it and get closer to a solution! Haha.

On the “colorblind with those very close to you” thought – that is where my idea of colorblindness comes into play. I also extend that sort of thought to my neighbors and my immediate community because I feel like in my community, I’m no different than the next person aside from pigment, sex or preference.

I think that when people hear talk of “colorblindness” they automatically think that is discounting the experience of a myriad of people who’ve “fought the fight”. It’s like being “colorblind” denies them the pride they have in being able to overcome adversity. I did note that MANY groups experience racism and discrimination – not just people of African American descent. The term “colorblindness” gives rise to the idea that a person’s racial heritage should be glossed over because pointing out race is bad. What I tried to explain was more the idea of being able to overlook the fact that someone looks different because of pigmentation, and see what’s inside that person, see how their community is interesting, and just extend human decency to people – no matter who they are. I made sure, I feel, to point out that a sovereign peoples’ struggles are important, but that focusing on a racial division also does create divides. I think the idea of “white-guilt” is a very victimized mindset to adopt and continues to create rifts instead of looking to mend wounds. I’m not some of my ancestors – and maybe I would have acted different in their shoes. I don’t see how I should be held accountable for that. I also don’t see how someone of a different race holding me at knifepoint over what people did before my time is going to solve our differences. What I can do is acknowledge your heritage, and then – as no part of that – extend my goodwill, respect, love and courtesy to you and everyone else around me. (Unless you come and flame me on my internet space in which I will defend my turf)

I think that economics can be *very* closely tied to the race factor, but when you come down to it, not all ghettos are made up of just one type of people. Race has a lot to do with economics – so your point about “consequences for larger-level issues” is completely valid.

Thank you again, Kristy for fostering great discussion on this topic. xo!

However, many of the responses to you had some valid points. “Ghetto life” is not always about economics; maybe at first glance it is, but that is because economics itself is greatly effected by many other factors, one of the major ones being race. It’s kind of a chicken or the egg argument: does race effect socio-economic status, or does socio-economic status come to be seen as just “race” (i.e. many people automatically thinking of a black person when thinking about poverty or a ghetto/projects area).

Racism, or any -ism, doesn’t exist alone — every person’s lived experience is a result of all of their identity factors at the same time, and I think that’s left out of a lot of these discussions. Some people get offended if you say “I don’t see you as black,” because, well, they ARE black. No matter what. Just like some people are gay, no matter what, and wouldn’t want you to say, “I don’t see you as gay.” There are ways to see race in a good way, instead of saying you don’t see race at all which basically infers that race in general is a bad or negative thing.

But to keep this briefer than a novel, I will say this. If we started ignoring color on a large-scale level, we would just see a bunch of data about things like poverty, lack of public services, graduation rates, average salary, etc, etc, as just random figures. It’s only when you start to break these figures down into categories such as race that you start to see disparities and you realize that things like discrimination and unequal opportunities, availability & access to services still exist. But that just reinforces those categories, I know. It’s a catch 22 really.

It’s important to acknowledge the lived experience of different people because of their race (as well as their gender, sexuality, and a myriad of other identity factors), because if we start saying everyone is exactly the same, we will no longer see the problems I mentioned above as larger-level problems, but only as individual problems. We’ll start to say, “Well, that person could’ve just worked harder,” or “that person probably did something wrong and deserved to be fired,” instead of seeing things like the fact that an all black public school is doing worse than any other in its district, or that a manager has only fired latinos in the past 5 years.

Ok, so I haven’t been able to keep this as brief as I wanted, but my short & sweet answer is this:

If you really want to be “colorblind” with those very close to you, with whom you acknowledge their experiences even if you don’t want to label them as occurring because of an identity factor, than that’s probably ok. You know them, are close to them, and you both probably understand how each of you sees the other.

But in general, I am against the idea of colorblindness, especially because of the consequences it has for larger systems and ways of thinking, as well as the fact that it infers that race in general is bad or negative.

And that’s my opinion on the topic, not of you. Hopefully you don’t see it as an attack, because it was not meant to be in any way.

Second? What makes you think that my entire life was relegated to 2 places – that I haven’t experienced a varied worldview? You don’t know me. You don’t know the economic or racial circumstance I’ve been in – and OBVIOUSLY you didn’t read most of this post which explains some of that. The “ghetto” situation I experienced was purely a byproduct of economics – which it is in MOST ghetto situations in this country (shit, the world?).

Third – Issues? Which issues are these? Counseling? That’s a mighty strong recommendation coming from someone who’s doesn’t seem professionally qualified to make those sort of clinical recommendations. Maybe you’d like to clarify exactly what sort of problems you believe I’ve got? Or are you just hiding, again, behind sweeping generalizations and belittlement?

You don’t have to come here and you don’t have to read it (and as far as I’m concerned you can f*ck right off if you don’t like it – this is MY webspace)

I’ve just proved that it’s a subject worth talking about and maybe you need to reread this quote:

“Thus, this young man must also nurture the idea of a black psychological woundedness that is baroque in its capacity to stifle black aspiration. And all his faith, his proud belief, must be in the truth of this woundedness and the injustice that caused it, because this is his only avenue to racial pride. He is a figure of pathos because his faith in racial victimization is his only release from racial shame.”

Just a few suggestions. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I am a very over-educated Black woman.
k

Here’s the thing. All skin color IS is a reflection of melatonin levels…that’s it! All the extra stuff we add to that is completely cultural. All that means is that a bunch of people agree to a specific interpretation but that means that it is SUBJECTIVE.

The objective truth is that skin color only has as much meaning as we decide to give it.

I personally don’t ‘see’ color most of the time. I grew up in Miami and didn’t really start to notice it until I moved to North Carolina.

Birdie, I think you’ve made some excellent points here.

@pennerad There was a really excellent quote by Als Simmons…
“Many issues, topics and theories that are accepted in the acedemic world do not go hand in hand in the real world.”

Anybody who’s been in any college class knows that often what we learn is different than what we see.

Even my predominantly white hometown was segregated by class, not race (and people think MT is full of hicks! HA).