Blog #3 Colorblindness is the New Racism

                                 

                                "Colorblindness is the New Racism"

                                   written by Margalynne Armstrong & Stephanie Wildman

QUOTE:    "Seeking colorblindness means Whites fail to see how whiteness has privileged them in so many societal interactions," (Armstrong & Wildman pg.66).

Argument Statement:   Society needs to utilize "color insight" and racial awareness in order to change one's thoughts and perspectives of others.   We also need to examine social interactions, initiate conversations, and change beliefs.  

TALKING POINT #1 

Armstrong and Wildman start this article with 'white privilege' in relationship to societal norms with certain races, other than one's own to be inferior, especially towards people of color.  A white person does not need to think about being white each and every day.  There is no threat or fear from being white for a person who has white skin.  I thought this to be very interesting and an 'eye opener' for me.  I am a white female and  have never had to think of my race in comparison to someone else who looks differently because of their skin. I do not think of my self in racial terms, nor do any of my family members.  

Armstrong writes that to a white individual he or she may feel that, "Racism is not my problem".  They may feel this way because they are not someone within a race that has been mistreated or thought badly of.  Most whites don't  usually think about race.  As I'm writing this, it brings me back to the other day as I was driving on the highway at night.  On the other side of the highway, I notices four police cards all with flashing lights behind a car that was pulled over.  As the cars around me started to slow down to see what was going on, I too looked closer.  I notices a young, black male being handcuffed with many white officers around him. I started to wonder why so many police cars were there when there was only 1 young male being arrested.  Would this situation, (with 4 police cars), look the same if it were a young, white male being arrested? Would that white male have been handcuffed?

TALKING POINT #2

In this article, Colorblindness is the New Racism, Armstrong and Wildman state, "Efforts to dismantle inequality often beg the question of 'unequal to whom or what?'  Failure to examine the privileged status drives attention from noticing and analyzing the advantages conferred by white privilege and renders any ensuing discussion of racial discrimination incomplete," (pg. 65). This same theme was also discussed in the article  Privilege, Power, and Difference written by Allan Johnson.  In order to change this trend and to stop mistreatment of other races, the first step is identifying the problem, naming it, and then working on changing it.  These steps need to occur in order for the practice of racism to stop.  This article differs though because it goes into public education in the United States.  Though laws have been passed that prohibit segregation in public schools, inequalities in education are still happening to this day. White students receive a better education and therefore better opportunities in society, this is a fact!  This chain of events makes it impossible to recognize discriminate in this 'color blinded and post-racial world'.  We need to start to question this privilege of 'whiteness' in order to stop it! 

A great point in the middle of the article made me stop, reread, and think about how this colorblindness needs to be addressed in schools in order to stop it.  To sum it up; students of all color, race, and gender will never work in an environment that is total homogeneous.  If students are to grapple with understanding these issues of privilege and inequality early on, they need to have insight into it.  It's like they need to be exposed to it, systematically learn skills to deal with it in order to stop and change it from happening.   Again like Johnson wrote, this article refers to the "elephant in the room."  If we do not look it in the face and acknowledge it, racism will never go away.  (Color insight vs. color blindness).

                                                          

TALKING POINT #3

Towards the end of the article, it discusses an exercise/assignment that was given to a class of college aged students.  This activity was for them to perform a racial observation on social justice.  This assignment was like the one we did in class last week were we needed to look at "white privileges' as you recorded our responses on chart paper.  The examples given from this racial observation from these students are listed below:

White woman student:  While being stranded in the airport for 8 hours, Stephanie was able to observe some very interesting things.  For example, all the higher paying or more important positions in the airport  were held by whites.  A sign on the airplane to fasten your seatbelt displayed a pair of white hands, and finally the gym  at home were she worked out at was also mostly whites.  

Asian woman student:  Upon entering a Federal Building, a white male security guard asked her for her ID.  This same security guard proceeded to ask an African American male to place his backpack on the ground then he went through and searched it.

White Latina student:  While getting her nails done at a salon, she started a conversation with the woman doing her nails.  As she looking around, she observerd that all of the white females getting their nails done didn't speak or ever try to start a conversation with the nail techs.  She felt that the Vietnamese service providers probably felt 'inferior' to these white women clients. 

This excellent exercise allowed for the heterogeneous students in this class to get a first hand, close up glimpse of privilege in their own worlds.  My connection to this was that I also felt this way after our exercise in class that looked at privileges based on different norms/ systems of privilege in our own world/society today. 

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                                                   Ted Talk:  Mellody Hobson (2014)

This was one of the most powerful Ted Talk videos I've seen.  Mellody Hobson starts off with retelling a memory from when she was 7 years old , being black, and  attending a white schoolmate's birthday party.  Her mother picks her up from the birthday party and instead of her mom saying, "Did you have fun?", "How was the party?", "What did you do?" her mother asks, "How did they treat you?"  This moved me, saddened me, and my heart went out to that 7 year old little girl.  Mellody had to grow up this way and learn early on about her race and the injustices she would need to face based on the color of her skin.  This factor of skin color would be a part of her ever day life from that day moving forward.  What a very sad lesson to learn for her as a young child.  

Key Points of this clip:

*Do not hide from differences.

*Numbers don't lie; racial disparity does exits within the workforce.

*70% of white men hold the top executive/board positions within the United States.

*Inequality is real; colorblindness does exist and is extremely dangerous.

*Be color brave,  teaching others about this issue and starting these teachings in school early on when children are young and impressionable.

*Real conversations need to happen. We need to start to  deal with the awkwardness & things that make us uncomfortable in order to make it comfortable!