“Colorblindness” — What You Can’t See Might Not Be Hurting You, But It’s Hurting Everyone Else

We want to teach our children that race is not something to judge another person by, so we teach them that is doesn’t matter — that it doesn’t exist. While the intentions of this action may be positive and the goal to create a more inclusive society, teaching white people to be “colorblind” to race is actually very harmful and contributes to things like white feminism and institutionalized racism. I, like many other white people my age, was raised in a home where race was never talked about or discussed — positively or negatively — where I could hear it. This led me to grow up and befriend anyone I wanted, regardless of race, and specifically to treat my friends of color exactly as I did my white friends. The problem with this is that it led me to make assumptions about their lives being the same as mine in terms of opportunities and experiences and, unbeknownst to me at the time, even disrespect them at times. Because I was taught that race didn’t matter and that racism was a thing of the past, I dismissed situations where I saw my friends being treated differently than me instead of recognizing it for what it was. Because I thought everyone was the same as me, it led me to consider my life and experiences as a white person as normal and universal (which I shouldn’t have to explain just isn’t true) and viewed differences as voluntary oddities because I didn’t understand any differently. When this happens, the child learns to attribute hardships and failures experienced by people of color to individual circumstances or decisions rather than to systematic racial injustice (much like the fundamental attribution error in social psychology). This means that they don’t see situations of racial injustice for what they are and can not discern when they themselves are perpetuating this inequality.

This erasure of institutionalized racism is what often leads to white people saying things like “oh, I don’t benefit from racism because I’m not a racist!” and “well (insert problematic casting choice) wasn’t about race, (insert white actor/actress) is just the best one for the job!” without even considering the social context of the situation. It makes white people think that it is enough simply to not explicitly treat POC differently or to not use racial slurs when, in reality, they still continue to use micro-aggressions and uphold systems of inequality. My father, for instance, refuses to acknowledge anti-blackness in the U.S. and the overwhelming disproportionality of people of color in poverty in need of assistance because of racism within the hiring process and systematic inequalities designed to keep people of color in poverty. He instead insists that any individual can pull themselves out of poverty with “just hard work,” but this declaration is based in the overgeneralization of his own experience to others and the assumption that people of color have the same opportunities he was presented.

“Colorblindness” doesn’t lead to more acceptance of people of color, it just makes it easier for white people to ignore the discrimination they face and avoid feeling like “bad people.” It leads to white feminism where even those who can acknowledge gender inequalities perpetuate inequalities against people of color because “racism is over.” It leads to people saying that unity and sameness are the real goals and even blaming people of color for calling attention to racial injustices by saying that they are the ones causing racial divides. In reality, what these people are saying is not a message of unity, but rather the expression of habitual whiteness and the message that “white is right” and anyone who brings attention to differences from the white “normality” is actually creating the divide. As discussed in Marguerite Waller’s “‘One Voice Kills Both Our Voices’: ‘First World’ Feminism and Transcultural Feminist Engagement” from Dialogue and Difference, our society’s desire for a single American narrative instead of acknowledging, respecting, and fostering positive difference, creates opposition and hierarchy within society that pushes these “colorblind” people further into their ideals and alienates people of color from our society.

This “colorblindness” is not a positive trait, and ignoring race as an aspect of the lives of individuals does nothing to help achieve the disassembly of racist structures in our society. It is born of white privilege because white people are the only ones who can afford to ignore race, because our race never impacts us in a negative way, and as eloquently stated in Audrey Lorde’s piece of the same name, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House.” The “colorblind” approach to race born out of white ignorance and privilege will never be helpful in breaking down and fighting social-structural and systematic racism that is still so prevalent in our society. So instead of teaching our future children that race is nothing to concern themselves with and teaching them racial erasure, teach them the opposite: that race, ethnicity, and culture are vital aspects of the human experience and are differences that should be respected. Teach them to use their white privilege to speak out against injustices and be allies to people of color instead of ignoring the ways that they benefit from society, perpetuating systematic racial injustice, and continuing to speak over and discredit the stories and experiences of people of color as they fight to be treated fairly.