File under “Links that Frink already posted but are relevant to the conversation:”
The part pertaining to “I don’t see color”/“color blind:”
- “I Don’t See Color.”
On the surface, this might seem like a harmless statement affirming that race doesn’t matter to you one way or another. But what it’s really doing is claiming that all of us are the same - which isn’t true. Because even though we are all human and are all made of the same stuff, it is our responsibility to acknowledge that, since we do exist within a societal system of racism, the color of our skin can and does dictate the way each of us experiences life.
To state that there is no difference between a white person and a black person is to completely erase the black person’s experience of oppression in today’s society - and that’s not helpful.
What to say instead: “Though I believe every human deserves equal rights, I recognize that people of color have had very different experiences of life than I have, due to the struggles they have endured based on the color of their skin.”