“Color Blind" In America:

Losing Sight Of Reality

There are people in America today who either aspire to be, or just claim to be, "Color Blind" when it comes to race. This is often expressed in phrases similar to "I don't see color".

In my experience these claims are usually false to begin with. However, if these claims are actually true then perhaps that explains why so many seemingly well-meaning people can turn a blind eye to the continued existence of systemic racism in America.

There are those who believe we are all one race and "color shouldn’t matter". That’s certainly true in some ways, and it should absolutely apply to employment, housing, government, policing, etc.. However, this is simply not something we can truly achieve in all aspects of human society, nor should we want to.

To be "color blind" in America is to also ignore the uniqueness of people’s experiences. While I can talk to others and learn from them in an effort to empathize, I can never truly know what it’s like to be a black man in America. There are very real differences between our life experiences, many of which are directly connected to skin color alone. How can someone be "color blind" and still recognize the uniqueness of the experiences, cultures, and perspectives of others?

Beyond that where else in human society do we see physical differences being ignored? For example humans have all sorts of natural, and not so natural, hair colors. Many humans also have preferences based on those hair colors. Whether redhead, brunette, blond, black or even gray, hair color is noticed everyday and it impacts how others perceive us. Some people prefer redheads when looking for a new potential date. Others prefer brunettes. It has always been this way. We do the same with accents, height, eye color, weight, baldness, and basically every other physical characteristic of a human being. We even do this with the different levels of tan white folks choose for themselves. Various inaccurate stereotypes for all these differences exist and should absolutely be combatted, but ultimately what we look like has always and will always have impact on how others perceive and treat us. How can we possibly expect skin color to somehow be different?

Skin color is absolutely part of who we are and how we are perceived and like all other physical characteristics it has always been this way. What we should aspire to is not becoming blind to color but rather to ensuring that color is not the cause of negative results, abuse, and ignorance from others.

I am not color blind, nor do I ever want to be. In fact I try my best keep my eyes wide open to the very real issues in our society that are based on color alone. I never want to lose sight of that.