Some of the most infuriating conversations I’ve had in the past few years have centered on this misguided notion that we should all strive for (figurative) colorblindness, and/or that talking about race in the United States contributes to a “divide.”

To which I say:     F. That. Noise.

and freely cast sideeyes all around.

Colorblindness

This might actually be the most idiotic goal I’ve ever heard of. Folks earnestly state that they want colorblindness, as if I’m supposed giggle and squeal and hold hands and  congratulate them for transcending the troubles of our times.

No. Noooope. All the nopes that ever noped.

If you are not a person of color (POC), when you tell me that you try/want to be colorblind, you are either saying that you strive to look at POC and see white people, OR that you strive to look at POC and see no color at all. Either stance is problematic. By extension, you’re also wishing away culture.  I don’t care how you intend it, when you say colorblind, this is what is communicated to me. You wish (or think that I wish) that I could be white like you, or you wish we could all be some nondescript shade of sameness (by the way, they tried that in The Giver and it didn’t work out well).

Do you know how many shades of brown exist? No? Neither do I. I’ve been moving around this earth for three decades and have yet to find another person with skin just like mine. The infinite diversity of skin tones is beautiful. The innumerable cultures and histories that come along with those skin tones are part of what makes this world incredible. If colorblindness is on your list of life ambitions, then you need new goals. And possibly new friends. Good friends are supposed to tell you when you sound dumb so that you can stop.

If, by colorblindness, you mean that you want to be able to recognize diversity without discriminating or making character assumptions on that basis, then say that instead.

“The Racial Divide”

The very beginning of the United States as we know it today involved the mass slaughtering and enslavement of POC, followed by the near total eradication of several cultures, the systematic curtailing and complete disregard of constitutional and human rights, and state-sanctioned murder, discrimination, and targeted incarceration.  An entire generation, nationwide, had to go through some serious hardship to gain even some semblance of equality. That was barely 50 years ago and in the grand scheme of things, that’s an inconsequential blip. Do you truly, honestly, think that the generation-to-generation entrenched attitudes of white superiority vanished over the course of 50 years? (That was rhetorical. The answer is “no”).

I had my first serious, memorable-for-the-rest-of-my-life encounter with entrenched racism & supremacy in 1995 on my elementary school playground in Newport Beach, California. (Heyyyy, check out racism refusing to limit itself to the southern U.S. or very outdated Americans).

Then, in 2017, someone fixes their face to tell me that something I am doing is causing a racial divide. Causing. In 2017. You are seriously telling me that 1) race issues are new, and 2) I am causing them.

I am many things and I have flaws and I will surely own every single one of them. But what I won’t be taking responsibility for is the current state of race relations in a country that drafted a constitution claiming that “all men” were created equal while simultaneously writing into law that my ancestors were considered three-fifths human. And has yet to devise anything in recompense for billions of dollars in nation-building over the course of a century or two.

Talking about race, acknowledging inequality and inequity, that is not creating a divide. That’s not intensifying a divide. It’s putting in the effort to hopefully fix a problem before it becomes irreparable. You cannot address a problem until you acknowledge its existence. Burying your head in the sand and clinging to colorblindness as you throw accusations of creating divides at people of color is a refusal to recognize or address real issues, and it makes you complicit in allowing flawed systems to stay in place.

Do you want to ignore reality, or find a way to make it better?