The Myth of Color-Blindness

Barack Obama’s success…far from disproving white power and privilege, confirms it with a vengeance.

~Lipmagazine.org

…Whiteness is not seen as negative, as something to be conquered or transcended. Indeed, whereas blacks are being asked to rise above their racial identity, for whites, the burden is exactly the opposite: the worst thing for a white person is to fail to live up to the ostensibly high standards set by whiteness…

 

Don’t restrict or limit God

Addressing racism requires a new language

~Catholic News Service

Don’t restrict or limit God. That’s what happens when we don’t look to see how much beauty there is in every ethnicity. We restrict God and we must not and cannot do that…

White privilege at work (a lot of work remains…)

Why Whites Can’t ‘Get Over’ Color

~Diversity Inc

Diversity Inc’s “Ask a White Guy” Column has a wonderful response to people who are still lost in the fog of white privilege. Below is an excerpt of the letter that trigerred a journey down the United States’s legacy of white supremacy and racism. Click on the link for the full exchange. 

Anonymous writes:

I am a white female and I can tell you that I don’t talk about blacks for fear I will be called a racist or be called to the table, especially in the workplace, for discrimination. We (whites), at my company, are not allowed to talk about blacks or any other ethnic group because we would get fired. I will say that whites are very sensitive now because we are discriminated against. Blacks can have the NAACP, BET (Black Entertainment Television), Black History Month, United Negro College Fund, etc. If white people were to start something like the before mentioned there would be a huge uproar…

The “White Guy” responds:

Your demand that we “Get over the color!” is an expression of white privilege. It’s only possible to “get over” it if you are in the majority culture. Assuming you’re white, YOU can “get over the color!” but it’s simply not possible for people of color to get over who they are, what that means and the damage our society has purposefully done over the centuries by color.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the myth of racial transcendence

Obama and the myth of racial transcendence

~Minnesota Spokesman Recorder

“The idea of racial transcendence is mired in the philosophy that Black folks can and should rise above their station in White folk’s minds. The effect of this would lessen the necessity for White people to do the rich cultural work that is vital to help bridge differences. Racial transcendence is almost never applied to White individuals because Whiteness is a given societal norm.”

This essay is a cogent summation of white privilege/ supremacy. The writer speaks clearly to why it is insulting and even demeaning to insist on a “color-blind” society. While his focus is on racial transcendence as a problem for African-Americans it can easily be applied to Latinos, Asians and every other person of color in this country.

In a color-blind society everything that I am as a person of color is overlooked in favor of a heterogeneous standard — a white standard. It is this very feeling, this elusive search for a color-blind society that “good, white, color-blind” persons seek, that illustrates how powerful, yet covert, white privilege truly is.

When someone says, “Obama transcends race,” they are really saying, “Obama transcends Blackness and truly makes me and everyone else forget that I’m even looking at a Black man.” This is not a good thing, because what it really does at a deeper level is solidify the normality of White supremacy. Therefore, Whiteness is the gold standard, after all other cultures or cultural ideas have been extinguished.

The very essence of being Black [Ed. or any other poc] to some Americans means, “You’re not one of us.”

I choose not to be an invisible man. I will always celebrate my heritage, my “piel de canela” [cinnamon skin, for the linguistically challenged].

After all, racial differences are a cause for celebration not denigration.

Our differences are what make this tapestry called humanity, this coat of many colors that God has created, interesting. It is our differences that make our church and society stronger.

Let’s celebrate our diversity.

Let’s overcome this myth of “racial transcendence” by becoming a church, a society where we are no longer “color-blind” but instead see all of the wonder that is ever-present in our diversity.

Take off the blinders and see all of the wonderful colors that God has bestowed upon us…

“and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.” John 11.52

 

The fear of white decline

The fear of white decline

~Los Angeles Times

Hillary Rodham Clinton is right. She has the broader and whiter political coalition, so she should, by all rights, be the Democratic presidential nominee. After all, in other realms of the political process, we routinely refer to “black districts” or …

 

Hillary Is White

~CommonDreams.org

Hillary Clinton presents herself to the electorate as a woman. She argues that she wants to break the glass ceiling of/for gender. But the truth is that she is not simply a woman but both a woman and also white. The very fact that she ignores her own race, in a way that Obama cannot, is proof of the normalized privileging of whiteness. In this instance white is not a color, but the color, the standard, by which others are judged. So she silently, inadvertently but knowingly, uses her color to write her meanings of gender and mobilize older white women and angry white men by doing so. She presents herself as a woman but her real power here is as white. Misogyny — the fear, hatred, punishment, and discrimination towards women — ensures that Hillary’s privilege is her whiteness…