Why Some People Prefer To Be Racially 'Colour-Blind'

My boyfriend told me this interesting, and somewhat sad anecdote about one of his colleagues who was trying to draw his attention to a woman who was sitting with another group. The guy kept trying to find all kinds of descriptions to let my boyfriend know which woman he was trying to identify, taking ages to do so, while skirting round the obvious fact that the woman was not only Black, but she stood out because everyone else around her was White!

It seems that the guy did not want to mention her colour, as he thought it might be offensive, and he too felt self-conscious at ‘making her different’ from the others. Being White himself, my boyfriend added that he, too, would have done the same before he met me! Yet such a seemingly ‘inclusive’ approach begged more questions than it answered.

Many people, predominantly White, often pretend that outward appearances do not matter. In fact, some take great pride in professing to be 'colour blind' to others. Colour is supposed to be meaningless to them, because they prefer to regard everyone the same as themselves. But strangely enough, this apparent logic does not apply to gender or trans people, too! They don't ignore anyone’s gender (like treating men as women), and also strive to treat trans folks how they wish to be treated. That important distinction prevails.

Some people might say that colour shouldn't matter. But only those whose colour has been favoured can afford to be colour-blind. For example, women didn't get real visibility in our society by people pretending that gender didn't matter. People had to show up the inequalities based on gender before it was appreciated just how badly women had been excluded and oppressed. 

They didn't go around saying there's no sexism to justify the status quo. The same with colour. The inequalities around it have to be acknowledged first before they can be remedied.

Dealing With The Unfamiliar 

Again, being colour blind is actually treating some people as 'honorary' versions of ourselves, so that we don't have to address their difference at all, in order to reduce our own discomfort and dissonance about them. This is because whenever we lack the skills to deal with anything unfamiliar, and perceive it to be threatening, we either:

• Relegate it to the same level as us (in other words, being blind to its difference); OR
• Pretend there is no difference to note; OR
• Treat it with contempt and superiority while stressing its irrelevance. 

However, when we see everyone as 'the same', or pretend there is no difference, we ignore their history, their pain, their particular experiences - whatever makes them unique - in order to transform them into our own image, while rejecting what makes us uncomfortable about them. 

How people look is the only thing we can use to inform us, initially, until we get to see their personalities, actions, or intentions close-up, and we feel comfortable enough to align with them. After all, how do we appreciate the complete wholeness of anyone, if we ignore their gender, ignore their race, ignore their religion, their culture, affiliations, and whatever matters to them? Exactly what is left for us to appreciate, and celebrate, when those important aspects actually form their personalities, and their perception of themselves?

Most visible minorities (the people who are noticeable through their colour) don't go looking for racism. It is usually brought to them, whether they like it or not, through other people’s fears, insecurities, desire to control, and personal ignorance. It means that when the recipients insist on being treated according to THEIR expectations, ‘colour-blind’ folks are likely to object because, not being able to deal with such difference, they belittle its relevance and/or negate its presence. Yet the greatest respect to another human being lies in our sensitivity to who they are, not what we wish to impose upon them in our bid to reduce their uniqueness to an acceptable sea of sameness.  

The Power of Being Colour-Blind

Another important aspect of ‘colour-blindness’ is that it is most likely to be professed by those who believe they have the power to define HOW another person should view or perceive himself, hence why they might see race as irrelevant!  But race is only 'irrelevant' to the privileged power brokers who set the rules of engagement, who use their own social yardstick to judge and measure others, and who have the real power and resources to affect the life quality of others and how they should react. 

In fact, the people who tend NOT to see race are likely to be the ones who are not on the receiving end of prejudice and discrimination, because of the general acceptance of their own colour, or those who seek approval and status by negating who they are (Kemi Badenoch?) and accepting external definitions of themselves from the people they deem superior to themselves. 

It seems that the people with the power to decide another’s identity by being ‘colour blind’, are those who find it difficult to move beyond what they view as a superficial ‘barrier’ to share any of the similarities. They are stuck at the doorway of interaction, unable to move beyond it because of their own fears and prejudices. Instead, they impose their perceptions on the reactions of others, while expecting conformity to those perceptions. Their position of privilege means they can afford to be blind to what they do not wish to see. However, colour - like gender or disability - carries its own history, experiences and assumptions.

For example, in our multicultural world, White people's colour is taken for granted, accepted as a given, and tends to be the most desirable. It is always accentuated through the media, while visible minorities are expected to ignore their colour. Yet people don't ignore their gender, because, in their eyes, it is something worth emphasising to preserve that difference. Our world is actually a testament to the pride and patriarchy of being male. That's seen as something valuable and important, intrinsic to ourselves, unlike being Black.

Again, it is not about using colour as a barrier to interaction, either. It is about ACKNOWLEDGING that colour, gender, culture, or whatever, to aid understanding of that person's particular life and journey, then moving beyond it to see what we might have in common with them. In this way we do not make assumptions about others without taking the trouble to know them.

It is really about how each individual, White or Black, sees him/herself and wish to be treated. That is the essence of respect.  When we see someone with any kind of difference, it is simply a doorway in any interaction to a wider experience of humanity's diversity: the opportunity to discover mutual alignment and interests, and perhaps a whole new perspective. 

Going through that door with confidence and sensitivity to widen our horizons and awareness, or becoming its gatekeeper, imposing our perspectives and being blind to difference and new experiences - that choice is entirely ours.