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 as colorblindness. 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.
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Racism? Strong words, yes, but let's look the issue straight in its partially unseeing eye. In a colorblind society, White people, who are unlikely to experience disadvantages due to race, can effectively ignore racism in American life, justify the current social order, and feel more comfortable with their relatively privileged standing in society (Fryberg, 2010). Most minorities, however, who regularly encounter difficulties due to race, experience colorblind ideologies quite differently. Colorblindness creates a society that denies their negative racial experiences, rejects their cultural heritage, and invalidates their unique perspectives.
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. . . .
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.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/colorblind/201112/colorblind-ideology-is-form-racism
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.Dr. King believed in judging people not by the color of their skin but the content of their character. I think he is a better authority on the subject than Juggs :yahoo: or whatever race baiting author she copy and pastes.
Racism? Strong words, yes, but let's look the issue straight in its partially unseeing eye. In a colorblind society, White people, who are unlikely to experience disadvantages due to race, can effectively ignore racism in American life, justify the current social order, and feel more comfortable with their relatively privileged standing in society (Fryberg, 2010). Most minorities, however, who regularly encounter difficulties due to race, experience colorblind ideologies quite differently. Colorblindness creates a society that denies their negative racial experiences, rejects their cultural heritage, and invalidates their unique perspectives.
That is the stupidest thing I had ever read.Considering the source... yeah. Par for the course.
So we have to be racist to end racism?
That Isn't what they want.
They want the specter of racism to continue to exist, so they can continue to fight it. And what better way to ensure it continuing, then to champion programs that intensify racial tensions ?
Race baiters realized that once people stopped being 'racist' in the United States (which is already true for the most part) by living in a 'Colorblind' society, the need to give people free stuff because they were born 'the wrong color' would also dissipate
Whoever wrote the article doesn't even define it correctly, but rather defines it in a way to slant their own viewpoint.
I don't think "colorblind" implies that racism doesn't exist or that it should be ignored when encountered, it is simply an affirmation that all races should be treated equally and without prejudice. As has been stated by others in this thread though, and it bears repeating, some political groups have a vested interest in making sure the racial pot keeps being stirred. Pandering and promoting victimhood are their bread and butter. When minorities become successful under capitalism, they start wanting to keep their gains, and not having to worry about day-to-day economic survival, they start thinking more and more about conservative social issues which are generally strong in minority groups, at least in the older demographics. That would make them naturally gravitate towards the party that promotes both of those ideals, the Republican Party. Democrats will do anything to avoid that, which means keeping minorities in economic slavery, and stoking the fires of racial fear and animosity like we saw with the Zimmerman-Martin case.
Socal31 (1,221 posts)
1. My children will be taught to be color-blind.
Last edited Sun Jul 28, 2013, 06:56 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)
Calling that "racism" waters down the term, and is probably only for shock value to get views on the article.
Being "color blind" does not mean that you cannot acknowledge someone's inherent advantages or disadvantages. It does not mean you cannot celebrate their culture, and become a well rounded citizen by educating yourself on as many cultural backgrounds as possible.
What it does mean is that you don't ever succumb to prejudice based on superficial characteristics, such as skin color. It means that skin color X should never be viewed as positive or negative over color Y. It means you don't make assumptions about someone's advantages or disadvantages based on skin color alone. Leave stereotyping to the comedians and teabaggers.
It isn't a perfect world, so protections are needed to ensure that if civil rights are being violated, the violators get a public smack down and are made an example of.
I admire the author for broaching the subject, which is definitely a taboo in this society. More intelligent discussion like this is the only way we will ever move forward.
BainsBane (14,212 posts)First, it was anti-gun, now it is racism.
2. I disagree
Colorblindness is a pretense. It doesn't exist. Race is a very real phenomenon in America and throughout the world. Pretending it isn't makes it impossible to combat racism.
There is a difference between not harboring negative perceptions of a group of people because of their race and pretending that race doesn't exist. Teaching children to judge people on their character and behavior is of course admirable. That, however, is not blindness.
I've also heard African Americans say they find the concept that white people don't "see" their race offensive. It is part of who they are. Racial difference can be celebrated, which is part of what multiculturalism seeks to do.
Deep13 (37,792 posts)Agreeing with PhDD. :mental:
3. It serves to reinforce the status quo. nt
nomorenomore08 (4,997 posts)Playing the race card. :mental:
5. Exactly. That is the entire problem with "color-blindness" in a nutshell.
If we don't acknowledge what's wrong with the world, how will we ever be able to do anything about it?
Pelican (1,084 posts)
55. The author is reinforcing the status quo...
by claiming people are different because of their race and you should treat them a certain way based on their melanin count.
BainsBane (14,212 posts)Yet, you obsess about it. :mental:
10. no, that isn't the point at all
But to pretend racism doesn't exist leaves no way to combat the problem.
PowerToThePeople (1,636 posts)
9. denial is not a river in Egypt
Many (Most) do not want to accept that their position in the economic food chain is a direct result of wrongs done to others.
LostOne4Ever (766 posts)Bigotry happens beyond race. You DUmmies are the bigots!
11. Colorblindness is a philosophy grounded in naive optimism for an America that does not exist
It (Color-blindness) is as fair to minorities as a healthy person having a foot race against a person with a broken leg. Color blindness only works if we were all working from a starting point of equality which the centuries of slavery and racism has prevented.
People who advocate color blindness are ignoring the systematic and pervasive amount of bigotry in our society that gives minorities far more hurdles to overcome. They are ignoring the poverty that racism has forced on many minorities. It is doctrine ground in ignoring the realities facing our country and pretending that the world is a perfect place where all people are treated fairly and justly.
It perfectly epitomizes the delusion and willful ignorance of the libertarian right
BainsBane (14,212 posts)
13. Read the article
Think about what it says.
Skip Intro (18,335 posts)
14. Did. Don't buy it. Hell, even MLK dreamed of a colorblind age...
...you know, people being judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.
Yeah. Article is wrong.
BainsBane (14,212 posts)
16. So does that mean people need to become like you to be accepted?
That they can't retain their cultural distinctiveness and must become like the dominant white society?
I assert you don't understand MLK at all. It's one thing not to judge a person according to race and another to pretend race doesn't matter. If fact, the latter is the current talking point of White Supremacists.
That is the stupidest thing I had ever read.Stupidest thing I ever read, and I read an Anne Rice book.[youtube=420,315]i7iQbBbMAFE[/youtube]
The US government is the most racist organization in the country.It is now.
It is now.
Two main themes emerge from the pages of “Rethinking Mathematics.â€
The first is that the U.S. is a hopelessly racist country that routinely oppresses “people of color.â€
This message is conveyed through lessons and essays about racial profiling, environmental racism, unfair mortgage lending practices of Big Banks, the “overabundance of liquor stores†in minority communities, and slave-owning U.S. presidents.
The book’s other major theme is that capitalism’s unequal distribution of wealth is the root cause of the world’s suffering. Students learn to despise free market economics in lessons about third-world sweatshops, “living wage†laws, the earnings of fast food workers and restaurant CEOs, and the “hidden†costs of meat production.
All of this sounds like material from a college sociology textbook. What could it possibly have to do with mathematics?
As the “Rethinking†teachers demonstrate, the math concepts of ratios, averages, percentages, bar graphs, density and geometric formulas are very useful when training kids to see the world in their preferred categories of “haves†and “have nots.â€
‘Reading the world’
The ideas contained in “Rethinking Mathematics†are based on the principles popularized by Paulo Freire, the late South American radical educator.
Freire believed the purpose of education is to help students understand the historical and political forces at work in the world. He referred to this as “reading the world.â€
According to Freire’s theory, students must understand how the world’s systems work to oppress the masses before they can reform those systems.
This is what some teachers in our public schools are up toObama's Common Core curriculum.
Book shows radical teachers how to mix traditional math with ‘social justice’ political lessons
http://eagnews.org/new-book-shows-teachers-how-to-mix-traditional-math-with-social-justice-political-lessons/
Book shows radical teachers how to mix traditional math with ‘social justice’ political lessons
10. no, that isn't the point at all
But to pretend racism doesn't exist leaves no way to combat the problem.