Colorblindness is the new Racism

Armstrong and Wildman assert that "Colorblindness in the new Racism" in their article, and follow Johnson's argument that society cannot just ignore a problem and hope that it goes away, especially a problem that elevates different sections of society over others. To provide a path away from willful ignorance they propose a term "Color Insight."

"Color Insight recognizes that a racial status quo exists in which society attributes race to each member"(p68) and this happens automatically. You might be the "black friend", your teacher might be the "Asian one." People categorize others constantly and often innocently,. Being aware of the negative impacts of that categorization is essential for change. 

The authors propose a number of exercises to do in a school environment to increase "color insight" and move away from the "color blindness" model. They suggest students make racial observations over a 24 hour period to bring awareness to their own lives. I decided to do this myself and this is a summary of the results:

COLOR INSIGHT NOTES

I teach in an elementary school (K-5) and every teacher and aide is a white female with 2 exceptions. We have 1 white male aide, and the Principal is also a white male. 

On Friday I taught 72 students and of those students 4 were black.

The Janitors are both non-white. The male has the Supervisor role, the female is the assistant. 

My 3 children attend school. All their primary teachers are white females. One school has a white female as the Principal, one school has a white male as the Principal.

All my immediate neighbors are white. 

That was it for 24 hours (I don't lead a very exciting life, so I have no night life observations to share), but it is worth noting that I have lived in New Zealand, Japan (locally, and then later on a military base), Nevada, and Washington State. South Kingston Rhode Island is the white-est place we have ever lived. I blend in well until I open my mouth and identify myself as a foreigner by my accent. My difference is not immediately visible.

When I first lived in Japan I lived in a Japanese neighborhood which was similar in it's homogeneous nature - except there I was the White Person, the outsider...the Japanese language had a word for me "GAIJIN". It literally means Outside Person. Japan was the first place I was truly aware of my own race. I was visibly different to my community, my body didn't fit Japanese clothes, my hairdresser asked if I had dyed my hair, and I was a minority. In Japan however, I generally had positive cache attributed to my Otherness. I was treated well.

In her TED talk, Mellody Hobson, recalls her mother asking if she was "treated well" when she attended the birthday party of a white classmate and was the only black girl there. I recall my Grandparents asking me the same thing after my first year living in Japan. They were both part of the Occupation Forces in WW2 and actually met in Japan. While they remember the cherry blossoms and the early days of a romance, they also remember going past a bombed out Hiroshima in a train. They remembered the burnt out remains of Tokyo after the firebombing. Their interactions with a recently defeated nation was wildly different to my interactions a mere 60 years later. I was treated well. Even in a country where our Grandparents had been war time enemies I was treated well. My white privilege protected me still. 

Mellody Hobson proposed the term "Color Brave" to describe being willing to identify and talk about these issues. She points out that "Numbers Do Not Lie" as she recounted out the significant inequalities that cannot be ignored with regards to household wealth, income, job opportunities and healthcare between racial groups in America. The Pew Research center has the Median Wealth of Americans broken down by race here. This is your no-surprise summary: Black Households are twice as likely as White and Asian Households to be in the lowest income tier.

These readings and videos spend a lot of time encouraging America to have "Color Insight", be "Color Brave" and to quote Alan Johnson again "to name it" in order to make progress towards equality. I wonder how many frustrated minorities want to rage at all the academics writing articles extorting people to name something that they have been living their whole life?

Are we still trying to name it?

Can't we try to fix it?