“An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind”: How modern notions of “color-blindness” may be inadvertently racist in nature

When asked how to solve racism, the answer I hear from a lot of white people is “don’t see color”. For one I want to point out that this is a great step from blatant racism. Being “color-blind” is much better than being color prejudice. However, thinking you are “color-blind” doesn’t necessarily correlate to lack of racist behavior such as micro-aggressions. This can be something like being especially self-conscious or cautious when a Black man enters a bus and sits next to you rather than a white one. Sure, you could argue that as humans we naturally schematize things accordingly. You might say, well gee, the reason I flinch when the Black guy sits next to me is because they are most likely to commit crimes.

I want to just side note the amount of subliminal racism and micro-aggression that occur in racial profiling as well as media portrayals, but with that aside, why do Black people, and Black men in particular commit more crimes?

Socioeconomic status. 

So now we can see this view as schizophrenic (simultaneously holding two contrasting beliefs) white people want to see Black people as equals and are “color-blind”, but yet we are able to schematize them as criminals because of their socioeconomic status.  

So one necessarily has to have cognitive dissonance. On one hand we claim to view them as equal, but then also view them as other. So in one regard we totally ignore inequalities of conditions and socioeconomic status, and on the other we highlight them as rationale for our racist behavior. Now I feel the need to point out the obvious that Black people cannot be biologically prone to violent behavior, so any inference of Black people inherently being violent as a peoples is unfounded at best. 

So now we need to address this schizophrenic view. How can Black people be seen as equals, when they are not? In fact, I want to argue, that seeing Black people as equal (not in the sense of human worth, indeed they are equal in this manner, but equals in privilege) is detrimental and is unintentionally (although at times intentionally) racist in and of itself. 

You see, when we see Black people or any minority group as equals (again in access to money and privilege) then we think legislation like affirmative action in both employment and school settings is racist towards white people. “color-blindness” blinds us to the history of exploitation of Blacks by whites, and furthermore blinds us from the current inequality of conditions and privileges between the two. Being “color-blind” is a good justification for one’s own privilege. So that one thinks things like “We are all on equal footing and so the things that I have achieved in life are due solely to my merit”, when indeed this is not the case. white people are more privileged and started out that way, and their privilege while in part might be due to merit, a large majority of it was handed to them at birth. 

“An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind” And so I want to leave you with this quote. While I obviously have taken it out of context, I think that it is exemplary of what I am trying to say. When the world see opportunities as “an eye for an eye” and presume that all are on equal footing, then the world necessarily becomes “blind” to current and past exploitation, and moreover it justifies current socioeconomic conditions as if they were based on merit alone (i.e. Black people are lazy and thus are poor, whereas I the white person, am hard working and industrious, and none of my achievement is due to my overwhelming privilege)

So what do we do white people? We look our privilege in the face. Realize that if you could choose to be reborn into this world as white or black, you would choose to be white. You know why? because it’s easier. Because were privileged. Own up to it. Embrace it. Use your privilege to help those rise who aren’t so lucky. (if you find this offensive and want to know what  I mean please comment below, I promise I don’t have a derogatory or big brother view of this help using privilege, so just ask)

*(if you are curious, the reason I capitalize B in Black is because I prefer this over the term African-American. Not all Black people are from Africa, however using Black with a capital B implies that now in the united states the group has formed a minority identity as they are subject to many of the same discriminations, and this Black identity has created a Black culture, hence, Black with a capital B. white is not capitalized because being the dominant class their culture is ubiquitous and not unique, and furthermore has not grown out of community action against discrimination)