Visual Identity Politics and Remix Society

C

Colourblind

Advocates for colourblindness have ended up closing their eyes to racism, especially the covert kind.

“A new ideology has reared its head in our “post racial” century and we have labelled it colour blind. The doctrine rests on the idea that we no longer see colour, just people.” 

In an AtlantaBlackstar article A.Moore gives some tips on how to respond to your everyday colourblind racist:
‘“People are just people.” ”I don’t see color.” ”We’re all just human.” “Character, not color, is what counts with me.” Colorblindness” negates the cultural values, norms, expectations and life experiences of people of color. Even if an individual white person can ignore a person’s skin color, society does not.

Claiming to be “colorblind” can also be a defense when someone is afraid to discuss racism, especially if the assumption is that all conversation about race or color is racist. Color consciousness does not equal racism.’

Colourblindness does not result in a tolerance of other races, it is in practice a willful ignorance of other races and thus is actually just a mutation of the disease. Herein lies the problems with colourblindness and sadly those that endorse it are blind to its flaws.

I wonder what we stand to gain by disregarding the things that make us distinctive but altogether equally beautiful? We do not live in a homogenous world and so a total disregard for our differences by champions of colourblindness is wholly unrealistic.

Any racist accused of being racist can easily utter “I do not see colour.” Advocates for colourblindness have ended up closing their eyes to racism, especially the covert kind. I wonder if these advocates realise that they are in effect eradicating the years of struggle endured by thousands of prominent activists such as Martin Luther King Jr who were not demonstrating for the colour of their skin to be ignored but accepted as equal. If those prominent people did not “see colour” their fight for equal opportunities for black people would not have been a fight at all. Ascribing to the doctrine of colourblindness may end up with our hard won rights being eroded and eventually relegated to the past with our ancestors.

The Colourblind Doctrine | Media Diversified
AtlantaBlackstar