From Pine View Farm

Colorblind to Color Lines 0

Charles A. Gallagher muses on the myth of a colorblind (post-racial?) society.

Honestly, anyone who thinks race or ethnic background is not still a significant factor in the day-to-day life of almost every American is not colorblind.

He or she is just plain blind.

Here’s a bit of the column:

If color blindness is taken to be a fact, raising the question of racial inequality is bound to invite resistance or denial, because many believe such inequality no longer exists. With color-blindness as the accepted racial frame, any race-conscious remedies by the government will be construed as discrimination toward whites, who will see themselves as the target and victims of reverse racism.

I have witnessed such pushback, almost exclusively from my white students, when discussing racial inequality in the university classroom. Students challenge any talk about institutional racism with the “What about Obama?” retort, which implies we are beyond race because there is a black man in the White House. This is a fair question from 18-year-old college students, many of whom were raised in almost exclusively white, middle-class suburbs. But we must realize that for many whites of all ages, “What about Obama?” is now the default answer to questions about racial equality in the United States.

Afterthought:

“What about Obama?” indeed. The wingnut rhetoric against him reeks racism.

I’m a Southern boy. I know the code.

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