Grau
1
Stephanie Grau Ripping off the Band-Aid: The Faults in the Validation of the Colorblind Ethos Racism has cast a dark shadow across centuries of social conduct, gashing the connection of simple shared humanity. Prejudice and discrimination against the African American people has caused extensive injury, a wound that has cut deep and left a gaping hole in our society. Despite our recent advancements in civil rights and freedom, the blood of this violence and discrimination has been dyed in the wool. To clean society of this stain will be no easy mend. Such realization is not recognized in the current approach of dealing with racism: the colorblind ethos. The desire for social restoration is illuminated with the colorblind ethos: that we, as an inclusive society, will strive to not see the color of one’s skin but only the products of one’s character. This method of dealing with race appears to be rooted in good intentions, however; it has been debunked as a halfmeasure for societal change and as a justification for continued racism and discrimination. The colorblind ethos is a Band-Aid solution: an atonement lacking the sincerity, effort, and responsiveness to hold against the repercussions of racism that has been ingrained in our society for hundreds of years. Therefore, in our current society, because of the flaws of colorblind ethos, we must first recognize that the racial situation in the U.S. cannot be mended easily or quickly in order to radically adjust how we face these issues. The colorblind ethos relies heavily on the comparison of the past transgressions of the Jim Crow era to justify our current racial situation. Compared to the racism seen a few decades ago, we have gone miles in advancement for civil rights; yet, this status is double-sided as through the eyes of society, it can become easier to discredit our racial issues by comparing them to past situations. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva contends that “compared to Jim Crow racism, the ideology of color blindness seems like “racism lite” (Bonilla-Silva 3). Instead of the blatancy and vulgarity of the Jim Crow era, racism is hiding in the creases of society, behind our institutions and
Grau
2
government, and in the background of human thought. Because racism is now more present in covert actions, it is exceedingly more difficult to squash. Racism can easily be ignored by those not affected. Therefore, the adoption of an intensified awareness of racial issues needs to be implemented: a more conscious effort to recognize the disadvantages of non-whites as a nation as well as our failure to testify to this issue. Recognizably, such awareness involves a certain degree of discomfort as no one wants to breach the façade of “everything is alright” that is holding our society together. Keennga-Yamahtta Taylor stresses that this is most apparent in society’s ignorance towards the vast majority of today’s African American community. “The success of a relative few African Americans is upheld as a vindication of the United States’ colorblind ethos and a testament to the transcendence of its racist past” (Taylor 4). Few in today’s society would attest to being racist nor would they want to be politically incorrect- to be called a racist is a major offense. However, it is easy to proclaim that we are not racist when we as a society mostly focus on the black elite. To admire the likes of Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Michael Jordan are simple deeds. Following such successes, it is easy to find the correlation: if these African Americans can find success, we now live in a society where the pursuit of achievement is accessible to most black people. Yet, when we scrutinize these black communities, we see that “the vast majority of African Americans [deal with] unemployment, underemployment, substandard housing, and police brutality” (Taylor 2). Therefore, focusing on such successes is the cornerstone by which the colorblind ethos was built is also its pitfall: race is still a prominent problem in the majority of African American lives. This ideology has not left us blind to race, but blind to its faults and our ongoing racial issue. Today’s problems with race through the colorblind ethos is the assumption of it being a nonissue when in reality we are, as a society, not equipped to relinquish what is rooting our racial
Grau
3
problem: prejudice. Prejudice is a human tendency that evolves around our craving for firm judgments and less ambiguity. Prejudice is used as a tool to make sense of the world by putting people into fixed categories: this person has this characteristic; that person thinks like this; yes or no; black or white. Colorblind racism is a product of this way of thinking. When forced to attempt to break down the walls of these prejudices-these categories- in the effort to create an inclusive society, we are uneasy with the complexity of a world without borders. Therefore, we feel compelled to find a blanket solution that would be acceptable, that would encompass everything and everyone inside one category. In the colorblind ethos, that there is “one” color; that race does not matter; no differences, no ambiguity. Problem solved. Obviously, this is not the case. For many in our society, our ideology has changed, paving the way towards acceptance and equality, yet our actions as a nation still scream discrimination and racism. With this colorblind ethos, what seemed like a jump ahead in advancement for equality has in reality been pushing us back, allowing us to ignore what is part of our human nature, what has been imbedded into our mentality. Taylor asserts that “promoting the US as colorblind or postracial has done the opposite as it is used to justify dismantling the state’s capacity to challenge discrimination” (Taylor 5). Race is still an issue; yet the colorblind ethos ignores it as so. The colorblind perspective has therefore allowed us to circumvent the title of a racist culture yet to still function in hindrance of minorities in our educational, industrial, and penal systems. Consequentially, in dealing with race, we need to foster a world that looks its problems in the ugly eye. The only way to do this is through acknowledging our own ignorance, prejudice and flaws as human beings. When we do this, we can finally make room for productive improvement in our racial issue. Of course, this is not the ultimate solution, as only in our wildest dreams can we live in a world without prejudice and racism. However, as Bonilla-Silva says, “race is a socially
Grau
4
constructed category. This means that notions of racial difference are human creations rather than eternal, essential categories” (Bonilla-Silva 8). If these categories, hundreds of years ago, can be constructed, they can ultimately be deconstructed. The colorblind mentality must be stripped in order for the gradual deconstruction of these categories can finally commence. Although racism cannot be fixed in our generation, we can start by uprooting the ignorance of our nation’s racial issues through education of these problems in our public schools, in our universities, in our communities. Through introducing awareness of our current racial issues into our society, we can start the discussions on rewiring how we think about race, so that in future generations, we can triumph a society where racial difference is not stigmatized or shoved into our mentality. By ripping off society’s Band-Aid, we can start working on stitching up the divide one stitch at a time, properly closing the wound that has been hundreds of years of damage so that finally, the wound can heal.
Works Cited Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States. (2006). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Grau
5
Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation. (2016). New York, NY: Haymarket Books. ProQuest ebrary Web. 23 August 2016.