Colorblind

We have all sat through multiple history classes and learned about slavery, segregation, and the Civil War. We have all seen brutal movies and presentations based on racial injustices and the lack of equality. So often, we forget that these issues are still so present in our community. Slavery is illegal in the United States but other forms of racial profiling, insensitivity, and racism continue to be a recurring social barrier. Racism is still very much alive. The United States is “equal” yet somehow segregated. There isn’t quite a quick fix to this problem. Clearly, this has been an ongoing issue and requires major progression in our personal global

Racism is a word that sparks a nerve in many individuals today. As hard as it is to believe, racism is still a big factor in what we as a society know as a unified America. Although, it is not as obvious as it was in the past, it still goes on, just in ways that are less noticeable. We ask the question, is the emphasis on a color-blind society an answer to racism. Ward Connerly claims it is a way to stop the segregation and make America a whole as it has been striving to be for the longest. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva believes color-blind racism is the new racial ideology and still brings about racial inequality. As the solution to the question progresses, we ask ourselves, will a

Colorblindness is a defect in the perception of colors, caused by a deficiency in specialized cells in the retina that are sensitive to different colors. The term is often used today during political discourse, often by members of some factions of liberalism, when claiming that one’s race should be irrelevant to any decision making process. It is a form of moral posturing; that one should see an individual as simply an individual, but not as part of any larger group or culture. As if this philosophy will enable us to bridge any gaps between races, this thought attempts to focus on how we are all the same, rather than how we differ. Teachers and administrators are required to complete coursework pertaining to multicultural education

Colorblindness has helped disseminate racism in the United States since the Civil Rights movements of the mid-sixties, by perpetuating anti-blackness and racial discrimination against other minorities. Colorblindness is a new form of racism, the new “Jim Crow” which “Legitimizes the state and society as racially neutral although they are not neutral” and creates the belief that we have become post-racial and we are all equal. While preaching homogeneity, colorblindness uses mechanisms by which white racial domination is structured and as a result, colorblind racism has caused a widespread of anti-blackness and racial discrimination against Latinos, Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians.

When white Americans choose to self-educate about systemic racism they can become allies in the fight to dismantle racist structures in our society. Systemic racism is a theory that “takes a look at how individual, structural, and institutional forms of racism intersect, overlap, and create a deep-rooted form of prejudice and discrimination that advantages a cultural group at the expense of others in all institutions of a society - economics, political representation, the criminal justice system, employment, and many others.” (Luther College 2015). This includes discrimination affecting credit, schooling, justice, residential location, etc. It can be eradicated in the next century, but not without white people acknowledging that it is a real issue that cost lives. It is not the duty of the oppressed to make a liberty sales pitch to their oppressors. However, it is the responsibility of those benefiting from the oppression of others to become educated, listen, and use their privilege to combat injustice. Asian, Latino, Black, and First Nations people respectively do not experience white supremacy in the same ways. Throughout this essay I will focus on the systemic racism targeted at Black people, using the term “People of Color”, coined by Black Feminists in the 1970s, abbreviated to PoC, to refer to them.

Why after 50 years since the segregation of Central High School, do people of color still face challenges of racism? Long before the segregation of schools, people have faced many instances of discrimination because of the color of their skin. These same prejudice acts still continue today. This nation has yet created a workable plan for solving the gruesome acts of racism because of ineffective protesting, the influence societies have on individuals, and social media.

Throughout the history of the United States, multitudes of social issues arise, fall, and repeat. In the modern day United States, many social issues are currently at hand including abortion, gender pay differences, the minimum wage, gun violence, police brutality, and seemingly excessive college tuition raises, to name a few. One issue that has been brought back to light within the last few years is racism. Many different headlines, buzzwords, and slogans shoot through media outlets including “Systematic Racism” (Bandler, 2016), “Black Lives Matter” (Black Lives Matter, n.d.), “Institutional Racism” (Michaelson, 2015), the list goes on. Many millennials and middle-aged workers are crying out in support and against these claims, calling this a social problem in an effort to show abnormality in the status quo (Davis-Sowers, 2016), as this condition has negative attributes related to individuals or the world that they live in (Leon-Guerrero).

In chapter eight, Kill the Messenger, from Racial Formation in the Twenty-First Century, the author Gary Delgado discusses how certain states do not follow a colorblind system that they claim to. Delgado first brings up the concept of colorblindness and how many conservatives claim that they live in a colorblind society. Many individuals who believe in colorblindness claim that people of color are now equal and that the racism, discrimination, murder, and exploitation they underwent in the past five centuries no longer matter (Martinez, LaBennett, & Pulido, 2012). They argue, however, that the only kind of racism there is, is reverse racism against whites. Delgado refutes this by claiming that just because more diversity is being put into governmental offices does not necessarily mean America as a whole is past its racist and discriminatory actions.

Police departments across the country have come under scrutiny for racial bias in their stops and

With the rise in the #BlackLivesMatter movement, racism has been a hot topic of discussion in news, music, television, and in film. America is finally beginning to understand and confront the effects of racism in society. Although the country still has a long way to go in regards to reform and achieving true equality, the acknowledgement of the existence of racism is a large first step. Despite the frequency of conversations about racism, there is still one vital aspect that is ignored and overlooked that greatly contributes to the hindrance of true change. Colorism. As a society, when speaking of racial inequality in the black community we fail to realize the role colorism has and the effect it has on those that suffer from it. Colorism in the black community is one of the main things that keeps us from

Racism is an obstacle that continues to play an active role in daily lives across the global. Currently, Americans are outraged by the actions of white police officers toward black men. In Ferguson, Missouri an unarmed, black teenager was shot by a white police officer and a black man was choked to death by a white officer in New York City. Racial tensions run deep in the United States, but race is social construction that is learned. Sociologist Amanda Lewis’s book, Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color Line in Classrooms and Communities defends the notion that schools are institutions in which children learn about race and maintain racial inequality.

In “The Fraying Of America,” Robert Hughes addresses how America as a society has been going through this non-stopping cycle of racism and inequality between races, genders, and political groups. All while providing a unique perspective on what we truly are as a country and the people that inhabit it. He begins by mentioning that while we want equal opportunity for everyone, the Americans have manufactured labels to the groups of people that are not white. Which automatically puts them in a category of people that the rest of society does not see as total equals; and by people claiming these labels, they only fuel the problem of inequality. Hughes also emphasizes how education, art, and the media is a tool in politics to “inform” the people and how it allows each political group to choose what information goes out to the public and how it gets presented.

Many people in the United States society believe that people of all cultures, races, and ethnicities are now on an even playing field. People with this belief support their logic with the argument that since equal rights for people of color and women have been required by law for some time now, we are all inherently as equal as claimed in the Declaration of Independence. Many believe that race is no longer an issue, a viewpoint frequently referred to as color-blindness. National polling data indicated that a majority of whites now believe discrimination against racial minorities no longer exists. (Gallagher, 96) Color-blindness allows a white person to define himself or herself as politically and racially tolerant and then proclaim their

As previously discussed, the American Dream gives opportunities to individuals who may have been born poor to become financially stable later on in life. The American Dream is colorblind because it is only meant for and applies to the majority, Caucasian people; which is a belief of many African Americans. Historically, African Americans have been denied full access to the Dream but are continuously working to achieve the dream of economic success. Stephen Cernkovich, Peggy Giordano, and Jennifer Rudolph's (2000) study suggest that African Americans downgrade the importance of economic success on the basis of their inability to achieve these goals. It is unfortunate and unfair that African Americans

There is instructive information that Millennials cannot afford to be color-blind about race. From birth, all people are educated to believe in happy endings. A large number of youths view racism as an issue that will or has already been worked out. When Barack Obama became our first black president, the United States reached a new breakthrough. This change must happen through the citizens or the government officials. The majority of racial improvement is paired with some type of defiance. This confrontation can be unassertive, progressive, or even terribly fierce. Ninety-one percent of 14-24 year olds believe in racial equality. Seventy-two percent of respondents stated their generation believed in equality exceeding than mature generations.