Being Colorblind

Many white people take the position of being colorblind in order to avoid the issues of racism. The implication of taking such a position benefits the white person. In terms of education, Amanda Lewis in her essay “‘Even Sweet, Gentle Larry?’ The Continuing Significance of Race in Education”, discusses the negative consequences of being colorblind by saying, “This denies not only the way race shapes who ends up in which school building, the long-term legacy it continues to have on family resources, and the way it shapes school practices and interactions” (2).  Therefore being colorblind hurts not only those of color but also all persons of society.

Also to deny race denies the ways race has helped middle-upper class families stay wealthy. It denies the issues of wealth inequalities and political favoritism that have lonely benefited the wealthy part of society. Therefore to take a stand of colorblindness will only perpetuate these issues. It denies all persons access into the culture of power, to give them an equal opportunity to live and grow with limitless possibilities.

James Gee, in his essay "Teenagers in new times: A new literacy studies perspective", also found the issues of colorblindness to be prevalent among upper-class teens. He says: “We have some indication that our upper middle class teens distance themselves from issues like racism even when it is the overt content of their course work” (418). Students in a study reported that their social studies teacher made it clear that the students couldn’t use words like “weird” or “odd” when describing things, they were taught to use the word “different”. One of the students Karin said that she lives in a sheltered town. Other students reported the same feelings. Another student also reported that learning about stereotypes was a big concept to learn. Gee sums up the problem of not learning racism by saying, “they appear to orient to the ‘cultural capital’ the class offers them to construct themselves as ‘worldly people’ despite their limited access to the realities of a diverse world” (419). As a future teacher, to recognize this as an issue will be one step forward in deterring the problems associated with colorblindness.