Want more Deb?
Please click here if you are interested in coaching, consulting or other services from Deb.
Color Blind?
Subscribe to RSS feed
Register
So often we hear people claiming to be “color blind” as a way to indicate that they hold no prejudices based on race. Their rationale appears to be that if you don’t notice a difference, it can no longer have a negative impact. What they fail to realize is that when we fail to “notice” differences, there are negative consequences at three levels – the individual, the cultural and the systemic.
At the systemic level, when power differences and distribution of resources and equity are systemically based on race, not noticing race contributes to the continuation of these ongoing inequities. It is precisely the invisibility of these systemic differences that make them so invidious and dangerous. In the case of power inequities, therefore, the danger is not in “seeing” and “noticing” differences but in failing to see the inequities that systemically result from them.
If we are color blind and therefore unable to use the lens of race to examine interactions and situations, we are unable to see the racial inequities that exist. For example an educational policy that requires that all children attend school in their neighborhoods may appear fair in one light – all children are held to the same rule equally. It is only when we use the lens of race or class that we can see how the policy impacts children differentially. We can then see that those children who live in poor neighborhoods (which in many cases have a disproportionate number of people of color) whose tax base cannot provide much in the way of resources for their schools, are relegated to inferior schools.
A recent New York Times article about Rudy Giuliani (“In a Volatile City, a Stern Line on Race and Politics,” by Michael Powell, July 22, 2007) discusses the former Mayor’s 1993 campaign slogan of “one city, one standard.” The slogan was designed to emphasis his view that no ethnic or racial group should expect special treatment. What he failed to realize is that there is a difference between “special” treatment that provides unearned advantages to some at the expense of others, and “differential” treatment that is aimed at responding to and remedying existing inequalities.
Blindness to race at the cultural level also leads to negative consequences. When we don’t notice race, we’re unable to learn about the very real differences in the experiences of people of color and white people. Giuliani’s insistence on remaining blind to race left him blind to the inappropriateness of the joke he attempted to make at a 1999 Urban League fund-raiser he attended. He told the audience:
“I want to apologize for leaving early. It’s very, very hard for me to get a cab. [after silence] You think I’m kidding? Have you ever tried to hail a cab in New York?”
He was oblivious to the impact of those words on a crowd with people of color all too intimately aware of how difficult it is to hail a cab in New York City.
Finally, at the individual level, failing to notice race is no benefit. Failing to notice race is like failing to notice any particular piece of beauty in the unique pattern of each of our individual pieces of woven cloth. In workshops I conduct, one way I often demonstrate the fallacy of the belief that not noticing is a compliment is by putting my hand on the shoulders of a male participant saying, “You know, I don’t even notice that you’re a man.” Consider the reaction that causes.
Neither color blindness nor class blindness, nor blindness to any of the other threads that make us different is beneficial. When the different threads are accompanied in subtle and insidious ways with inequities, such blindness is dangerous.
The Quilt of Humanity ModelTM Approach: When I use the Quilt of Humanity ModelTM in workshops, I ask participants to use cloth or yarn and thread to create a representation of who they are as individuals. Pieces of yarn or cloth can represent social identities such as race, gender, socio-economic class, age, nationality, religion/spiritual beliefs, physical ability, sexual orientation, and ethnicity as well as any other personal characteristics. When I ask participants to point out which pieces of yarn or thread is most salient for them, participants of color often list race.
The exercise, because it allows the piece of art to serve as the foundation of the discussion, provides a safe way to enable participants to talk about how race impacts their life. When white people hear how race has an impact on the daily lives of people of color, it can help them understand that society is not color blind. It also enables them to see the entire beauty of the pattern of each participant’s piece of the overall quilt.
comments
2 Responses to “Color Blind?”
Leave a Reply
-
Get email updates
Subscribe to RSS feed Repairing the Quilt of Humanity: A Metaphor to Understand our Connections
For information about Deb's book, The Quilt of Humanity: A Metaphor for Healing and Reparation, click here
Hi Deb!
I am extremely happy to see you have a venue for your opinion. You may not know this, but we think similarly. In this essay though, you appear to let Giuliani off the hook, claiming he was oblivious to the impact of his joke. Not only did he know what he was saying, he chose to say it to Blacks specifically because Black folks are the primary group who don’t get cabs in a timely fashion and claim it is a result of racial prejudice/profiling. Yes, I am saying he said this in a mean spirited way, mainly because he could. It is especially galling, as he was at the podium in a room filled with people of color, i.e. he knew what he was doing, he was not oblivious to the moment.
I’m all for giving people the benefit of the doubt, but in this case, there is no doubt of Giuliani’s feelings. He has a record of insensitivity and outright animus towards people of color. Sometimes colorblindness works in other, less obvious ways. In this case, it is in not seeing that Giuliani is an evil, spiteful man, who could hold a grudge against a racial group in a heartbeat. That is a colorblindness that I’ve observed for many years, in many cases. Usually these examples are tossed to the side with comments about over-sensitivity. Right…..
Hey Lee,
Great to hear from you. Tell us what you really think about Giuliani.
.
Thanks for commenting.
Deb