jadedfucker:

“When you say to a person of color “When I see you, I don’t see you as black! I just see everybody the same.” People, think about that. You don’t have the right to say to a person “I do not see you as you are, I want to see you as I would be more comfortable seeing you.””

—

Jane Elliot on the absurdity and invalidation of claims of “Color Blindness” by white folk (via brazenbitch)

Thank you.

(via mehreenkasana)

I jokingly poked at my mother for this very thing about two hours ago. My wife is black, so I like to joke and call white people racist for no apparent reason. You’d have to know me in real life to fully understand this, but I’ll say that it’s about 5% inspired by the way people of (a) certain group(s) are so eager to blindly paint those of others as racist, almost for any reason.

My mother said, “I don’t see X as black.” Naturally, I knew exactly what she was talking about—what kind of intellectual midget wouldn’t understand the context of such a statement? None—only those who are truly incapable of comprehending the simplest aspects of language and thought would fail to grasp the purpose of the statement. Let’s be honest, it doesn’t take a genius to understand the perfectly nice context of the statement.

Still, there are those who exist who are, for one reason or another, hell bent on either being victimized or making someone else out to be bad/oppressive/racist/sexist, ect. Since I find see this regularly, both online and in real life (and TV/radio), I often mention it, regardless of the forum.  If I see it happening in real life, I call it the fuck out. Literally, if I see someone trying to pull this shit in the grocery store, I call them out on their mindless bullshit right in front of everyone. 

At any rate, when among friends and family (who know me well enough to understand the context), I’ll make joking comments that are similar to the absurdities we so often find online and in the media and in real life these days.

“Colorblind” is a perfect example.  I DO have strong objections to the notion of a “colorblind society,” because it opens a door for people to say things like this. To turn a comment that has friendly, nice intent into something else. In other words, it becomes a tool for those who wish to make themselves out to be your victim, even when they know very well and good that they aren’t. Also, because a person’s skin is what it is, and it’s a little silly to say you don’t see their skin color.

Now, back to my mother.

Mom: I don’t see X (wife) as black.

Me: That’s so racist. She IS black. You saying you don’t see her as black is implying that there is something wrong with her blackness, and you opt not to judge her on it, seeing her for the person inside, rather than her flawed skin pigmentation.

My mother then looked at me and laughed at me like I was some kind of fool—not surprisingly, since only a fool would actually believe such nonsense, or at least try to generalize such a comment as being racist in nature.

The very act of trying to force such a comment into being racist or an act of discrimination is, itself, an act of discrimination. It’s telling one group—those who would utter such a line indicating “colorblindness”—that they’re vile in some way; that they’re racist and small minded.

The truth of the matter is this:

It’s a comment that is intended to convey that race doesn’t matter to the speaker. They’re saying they don’t give a flying fuck if you’re black, brown, white, yellow, purple. So, rather than trying to force everyone under the carpet of racism, just accept the fact that someone tried to say something nice and, if you absolutely must, suggest a more appropriate way of wording their thoughts.

For example, rather than foaming at the mouth and trying your very damned hardest to be a victim or to find racism in every aspect of life that you can, say this:

Thank you, but I’d really word it another way. Rather than saying you don’t see a person as black, white, red, etc., just say people are people, who cares what color their skin is?

Then maybe go have some tea or chit-chat about the weather like normal people.

The comment is absolutely NOT saying, “I do not see you as you are, I want to see you as I would be more comfortable seeing you.”

What the hell kind of whiny bull crap is this nonsense? Really? This is the kind of gibberish that people are mistaking as intellectual food these days? This isn’t a bit of wisdom; it’s a soundbite to convince you that you’re a victim, or that you’re a horrible racist person.

It’s none of that.  It’s just someone trying to say they don’t care about the hue of your flesh.  That’s it.

Get. The Hell. Over it.