Finding the Bad Side of Everything
It seems that some negative ninnies (and you know who you are), noticing that young people today don't have a problem with interracial dating, are worried about our society becoming "too colorblind". Um, I thought that was kinda the point of what Martin Luther King was fighting for?! It just goes to show you - there's no pleasing some people. But when they're complaining about too many kinds of mustard or young people not noticing racial differences, it means we're probably making some progress.
HT: The Agitator.
posted by The Offensive Coordinator @ 5:05 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I think that the article isn't saying that we should be more segregated or that it's a bad thing that we're colourblind, but that b/c of the fact that most of us don't have a problem with interracial dating or interaction we tend to forget that racial inequality does still exist. And when you don't notice the problem you aren't going to do anything about it. There is still further progress to be made.
As for the choice thing below, sometimes I agree! haha. I mean really - it takes me like 10 minutes just pick out what type of toothpaste or soap I should buy! lol. Of course that could have something to do with the fact that I'm indecisive!
I think the take-home message, though, is that we're pretty lucky to be having problems like having a tough time deciding what type of toothpaste to buy or that we're becoming less focused on race as a dividing line between people. I agree, we shouldn't assume that all race-related problems have disappeared (because obviously they haven't), but it's encouraging for the future that younger people are becoming colorblind - when those people become CEO's, they're not going to care about the colour of an applicants skin, they're going to hire the best person for the job.
Maybe it was that the phrase "leaders of the professional victimization industry" off of the Agitator got me peeved, but I actually think that article had some good points.
I, too, used to think race-blindness was a good thing, and I thought I was pretty darn race-blind, so I’ll admit that it was a self-congratulatory theory. But I’ve come to realize that while we’ve come one heck of a long way with regards to race relations (the Civil Rights movement arguably peaked less than 40 years ago!), we’re by no means a race-blind society. As individuals, we can be race blind (and I thought “well, I am, so that’s good, I’m a success story!”), but (and this is the key) society isn’t. Therefore, until we’re been more able to deal with the lingering inequities of our extremely troubled (here I’m talking about American) past, then we who become race blind are doing so prematurely; really, we’re just putting on blinders. If we’re not willing to still talk about race and racial inequities, then we silently accept a problem that still exists. And I think that the term “race-mute” in the article was a powerful, and powerfully truthful, one. Race will continue to need to be a topic of conversation for decades to come, regardless of whether we as individuals are willing to date someone of a different skin color.
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