Quote:
Originally Posted by Rococo
There are a lot of white people in the American South who espouse the following ideology: "I don't see color. My children go to school with kids of different races. I work with people of different races. For at least the last forty years, racism hasn't been a significant factor in society or a significant impediment to the advancement of non-white people in the United States."
Exactly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by shortstacker
I don't see how it is even logically possible to be a racist and adhere to a colorblind ideology.
I think PW has done a good job of addressing this, but I'll add some points of my own.
First off, I'll note that I didn't suggest that adhering to a colourblind ideology makes someone racist (nor did you suggest I did). I would think most, and maybe all, people who sincerely believe in a colourblind world (and truly walk the walk), do not have hatred for people of other skin colours. I'm leaving aside inherent biases they may be unaware of. So to that extent, I might agree that one can not be a true racist and sincerely adhere to a colourblind ideology. Not just because said ideology would mean no races, thus they can't be racist, but also because said sincere adherence means they hold no such hatred.
But that still leaves us with an important issue that Rococo has alluded to. True racists will use "colourblindness" as cover to avoid righting any wrongs, while well-meaning people can be blinded by their "colourblindness", as in Rococo's quote. And there are lots of people in between, who are quite willfully ignorant - they know or suspect things aren't right, but would prefer to just brush that aside and say it's all OK as long as they treat people equally now. Are all of these people racist? I believe most people would say no. But I'm not unsympathetic to those who would argue otherwise, because it's ****ing 2022 and how the hell can you possibly be ignorant of the impact of past racism and the racist policies and attitudes that still exist today?