Current Events > why is not seeing race problematic?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I asked chatgpt but it didn't give me a good answer so I figured i ask you humans

Intentional color blind racism?
Example: Everyone should be treated equal so there should be no affirmative action

the "thesis" to my understanding is that approaching interactions with the assumption of cultural homogeneity runs the risk of cultural insensitivity, and heaven forbid, approaching interactions from a hegemonic cultural background implicitly denies/erases the cultural identity of those who aren't or something

but idk i'd be offended if someone made cultural assumptions about me because of my skin color, lord knows i dealt with it quite enough in the deep south

ironically, a lot of racists say stuff like "I don't see race" because they want to sanitize/"whitewash" history, and disregard how it's not such a far removed thing that doesn't still have an influence over people's lives

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/9/0/AACE4xAADM1O.jpg

rexcrk posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/9/0/AACE4xAADM1O.jpg

Enough with the clown!

not seeing race is ignoring someone's culture

Rude

It's more that it's a crutch for ignoring systemic racism.

38% of the prison population is black, only 13% of the population is black. You are 6 times more likely to go prison for the commiting the same crime if you are black. You earn less for the same work if you're black:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/1/1/AAZiH8AAEemX.png https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/1/2/AAZiH8AAEemY.jpg

The government literally based its decisions of what drug usage counts as felonies based on data about what was the most common drug usage among young black men.

You get frequent deaths by police. George Floyd, Tamir Rice ,Eric Garner etc. The president of the US being openly racist.

You hear studies all the time of people applying for jobs or buying/selling a house with the same CV except one uses a traditionally "white" name and one uses a traditionally "black" name and the black one gets rejected while the white gets replies

The response of:

"Why did you notice? Aren't you the real racist for noting the difference in the first place. I don't even see colour, I just see people" is one of immense privilege.

"Stop talking race and the problems will all go away" is effectively saying "This doesn't effect me directly so who cares?"

On some level you have to be aware of race to remove systemic racism from the government.

The rare time I'll say this: Unfair hit the nail on the head.

I don't think I've ever seen someone say "I don't see race" outside of as an excuse for something racist they are about to say or have already said.

But assuming there are indeed people who just say that unprompted, its just an empty statement. It basically just means that you either aren't interested in or don't understand the causes and consequence of racism and you're giving a fluttery-worded version of "I don't want to talk about it"

According to most of these posts, it's best to take skin color into account when interacting with others.

Its not problematic, if no one saw race we would be without racism

I dont see class.

*ignores homeless people suffering*

(Homelessness solved! Just as Jesus wanted!)

deoxxys posted...

Its not problematic, if no one saw race we would be without racism

this isn't true. even if there were suddenly zero racist people in the world, the effects of racism would still be there

If you don't see my race, you don't see my history.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/7/6/AAcJoVAAEenY.jpg

All lives matter.

https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/4027016/all%20lives%20matter%20cartoon.png

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Not seeing race facilitates what goes on in society

fixed that for you

Because in a world where we have multiple institutional systems built with a bunch of racial bias, not seeing race means that the issues those systems create get ignored.

The only people who say "they don't see race" are white people who aren't affected by the racism that still deeply permeates the world.

Trying to avoid discriminating against people on account of their race in your everyday interactions with them is laudable. But we live in a great big old, complicated world in which history is very much alive and breathing and can't be simply blurred out or wished away. So even if you personally don't see race, you need to be wise enough to understand that race does still matter.