Colorblindness Is The New Racism

 

    Armstrong and Wildman argue that colorblindness cause society to ignore the cycle of privilege and discrimination thus repeating the same cycle. They discuss how it has become more popular amongst white people to take the stance of "how can I be racist when I don't see people's races?" However that is exactly the problem.

    My first talking point is diving into the problems with colorblindness. I admit that as a white person going into my undergraduate degree I did not understand the need to constantly learn about racism. I have even stated that I did not see or define people by their race. Which to an extent is still true today because I do not define others by their race but boy do I notice now (I will touch more on this later). I did not understand that there was anything wrong with this at the time. The reading states "whites tend not to notice their own race carries social meaning and generally positive presumptions." I find this statement to be overwhelming true because my skin tone comes with the privilege of not having to think of how I am defined by my race which means that I also tend to not think about others. The reason this is a problem is because when we do not see race we do not see the oppression and discrimination that is linked to race. For example, I teach at an elementary school and we are currently having a lice outbreak. Upon first thought you may think "oh that's common for elementary schools everywhere" but what if I told you that it has been a problem for over a month and it has spread to all grade levels. What if I also told you that it has gotten so bad that lice bugs can be found crawling in classrooms. This is clearly and terrible situation and I'm sure you have a lot of questions but would you think to ask what my population of students is like? The majority of my students are black and only just under 10% identify as white. I want you to think to yourself would this lice epidemic get to this severe of a place in a predominantly white school? Probably not. If we chose to not ask questions about the demographics of my students then you would miss a huge part of how students of color are oppressed in a way you may never have thought of (because I certainly didn't until this year).

    My next point is how the preferred alternative is color insight which "requires observation and reflection" of race in the real world. I really admired the assignment suggestion of having students document the racial composition of their surroundings for 24 hours. I thought that this is a perfect way to get students thinking about how race causes different types of interactions in society and paying attention to race for one day makes you pay attention to privilege and discrimination. This is something that I would actually really like to try to see where it leads me. In my opinion, the idea of color insight in the reading as potential to turn into being color brave as discussed in the TED talk. In order to be color brave you must first have color insight, you must be able to see and acknowledge race and the role it plays in our society first. Then to be color brave you have to use that knowledge to talk about it, do not shy away from mentioning race. Being color brave is to take action against the privilege and discrimination by using your color insight.

    My final point is to discuss why I believe many white people choose to remain in a state of colorblindness and that is discomfort. This is mainly mentioned in the TED Talk but for everyone (not just white people) race is an uncomfortable topic, not many people know how to react when race is brought up. I hate to admit that for me, this was the most relatable part of the entire assignment. I tend to avoid talking about race because it is uncomfortable and almost scary. I can even recall on several occasions being scared to refer to someone as black out of fear of offending someone, even though the description is not derogatory society makes it feel as though it is. I avoid mentioning race out of fear of sounding racist because I would never in any way want to come off as racist or accidentally offend someone but by avoiding talking about race I am avoiding fighting the systematic racism. I think as a society (most of us) are in a place where we do not view one race as being superior or inferior to another, however that does not mean the set up of our society has changed enough to actually defeat privilege and discrimination. This directly ties into the previous assignment about the four I's of oppression, specifically institution oppression. Our society functions off of institutional oppression which is why it is important to acknowledge race and see where our society is going wrong. 

    An example of how discomfort is the main challenge to beating colorblindness is coming up in my life soon. I am a white teacher in a primarily black school and black history month is coming up. I have spent over a month preparing for February knowing that this is important for my students and that is important that I teach this the right way. I have spent many hours picking musicians from all genres of black music anywhere from rap to jazz and also discussing how popular genres such as country began in black communities and were then taken over as white music. I made sure to create interactive lessons and thoroughly research all of the most influential musicians but the one thing I am stuck on is how to teach it. Not necessarily the content itself but more so the approach. Do I acknowledge that I'm white? Do I need to because the students can tell? Will they be uncomfortable learning it from a white teacher or feel resentment that it's coming from me?  If I acknowledge my role in contributing to oppression will they see me as a bad person? What is and isn't appropriate to talk about in terms of racism to elementary schoolers? I have so many fears and they all come from a really good place of wanting what is best for my kids. Obviously I am going to do my best and hopefully learn from any mistakes I make and be more prepared for the next year. Currently I am doing as much research as I can by reading many articles written by black teachers such as these tips and this article called "Dear White Teacher."