I'm not color blind. You're not either. Wanna know how I know? Drive through the 5th Ward in Houston at 2 a.m., or really any time of day. Feel that compelling and overwhelming need to lock your car door? Why is that, do you think?
Enough said.
Submitted by Lauri Lenox
#2 How Shallow
Am I colorblind? The answer is no. I see vivid colors in all shades and hues. The thing of it is that I don’t use those colors as definitions but as attributes. I don’t think that any one person or any group as a whole can be expressed as a color. How shallow it is for someone to consider that they know the depth of another individual from the pigment of their skin. We as individuals do not chose the circumstance of our birth. As humans we are all created equal but from that point, it is strictly up to us. No one else in life is responsible for who we become. From our decisions and our actions do we decide the person that we will be. There are only stereotypes because people choose to uphold those stereotypes. People limit themselves when they define themselves. With that said, a person is an individual. No two people that I have ever met in this life are exactly the same including my girlfriend and her sister and they are twins. To assume that a single commonality such as skin color can come close to defining the array of experiences and trials that create an individual would only diminish our investment in the human race.
Submitted by Jeremy Rinard.
#3 Pretending Our Differences Don't Exist
Are you color blind?
No. I'm not. And I don't want to be.
I'm not racist either.
I simply believe that so-called “color-blindness” when it comes to race and culture seems unhealthy and disrespectful. It is our differences that add to the beauty of this nation and this world. To ignore those differences is silly. I would rather recognize them and appreciate them.
Everyone has a story. I am here because my grandfather, as a teenager, escaped from Communist rule in Eastern Europe and eventually brought his entire family to the United States. A staggering percentage of black Americans descended from someone who beat terrifying odds, having been kidnapped, stuffed into a boat, and crated across the ocean in conditions we can't even imagine, to eventually survive and procreate in the United States. Many Latino Americans descended from, or are themselves, immigrants who gave up their homes and way of life to look for prosperity and freedom in the U.S., some of them risking their actual lives to get here.
A person's culture or race or color is not a means to make conclusions about the integrity or values or personality of that individual. But our histories are to be respected, not ignored. They help make up who we are, one way or another. And all those differences make our nation, our society, more beautiful if we accept each other WITH our differences, instead of pretending our differences don't exist.
Submitted by Beth Rogers. Visit her blog - Veritable Observations.
#4 Making It About Race
No, I'm not colorblind. I think to be so would be to ignore the inherent differences between cultures and people, and by virtue of that, to ignore a part of who someone is. The point is not to be colorblind, but rather, to not judge someone negatively because of their color. I think a lot of the time (for instance with our current President), people in the majority tend to think, "Well, why do they (e.g., the nonwhite person) always make it about being Black/Mexican/Arab/etc.?" I believe this stems more from the people in the majority placing too much value on being "colorblind" rather than not being racist. People who tend to say the above statements interpret these people's owning their own unique cultural narrative as "making it about race." My response to that would be, "How can it not be?" We no longer live in a world where those in power, on television, or living next door to us are all the same color as us. As soon as we stop pretending it's possible or productive to be "colorblind" and start talking about and embracing our differences and stop pre-judging each other because of them, we might get somewhere with this whole race relations thing.
Submitted by Amanda Rogers, Esq. Visit her blog - Seven Eighty One.
#5 I Am Proud To Be White
I am not completely color blind because, like others, I obtain particular stereotypes that are far too often verified by other races of people.
However, I am confident that I am far more color blind than many people on earth. There are two roles I believe race plays in society that I find need to be corrected. One has to deal with the caucasian perspective towards minorities, and the other addresses the progression of minorities in society. I will try to explain both with examples.
The first role is that, yes, unfortunately there are those who have not escaped from their own ignorance to understand that if a person's skin is anything other than white, they still have just as much right to live, progress, an succeed in this world. Most discrimination stems from a lack of understanding. A simple way to explain discrimination at school is that children tend to make fun of the things they don't understand. This logic can be applied to race differences. Instead of light humor and fist fights though, we tend to find hate and fatal violence. It seems that a solution would be educating and a deconstruction of a self implied cultural hierarchy, but it hasn't been that simple.
The second role of race that needs to be corrected is appropriateness of using race as an excuse. I know that, because of the ignorance of others, there may still be some challenges when it comes to achievement in society (and I am referring to progressive societies), but it's not impossible. There is no excuse for any minority in this day and age to say that they can't achieve something because of the skin color, especially in a country with a minority President. It is conceivable that it may be harder for some depending on family background, but not impossible.
I am not ashamed to say that I am proud to be white, proud of my culture. I am not a racist, I say it along with all other races who are proud to be who they are. With the ever increasing influence of other cultures in this country I would hope that minorities can learn to appreciate the white culture as they expect white to appreciate theirs and understand (there's that word again) that the white citizens of today are not the ones responsible for the hardships of minority ancestors from the past.
Submitted by Damian Trudell, Visit his blog - "My Thoughts"
#6 My Kids Are
My parents witnessed true racism and segregation. I read about it. My kids don't even know what racism is (yet). In three generations, we have moved both further away from racism and further away from the "identities" of color that once defined us. Can you imagine what my grandchildren will think about race and color? I wonder...will there be some other defining aspect that brings us together for the common cause of discrimination? If not color, what will it be?
Submitted by Jason L. Buchanan. Visit his Facebook Profile.
I am not completely color blind because, like others, I obtain particular stereotypes that are far too often verified by other races of people.
However, I am confident that I am far more color blind than many people on earth. There are two roles I believe race plays in society that I find need to be corrected. One has to deal with the caucasian perspective towards minorities, and the other addresses the progression of minorities in society. I will try to explain both with examples.
The first role is that, yes, unfortunately there are those who have not escaped from their own ignorance to understand that if a person's skin is anything other than white, they still have just as much right to live, progress, an succeed in this world. Most discrimination stems from a lack of understanding. A simple way to explain discrimination at school is that children tend to make fun of the things they don't understand. This logic can be applied to race differences. Instead of light humor and fist fights though, we tend to find hate and fatal violence. It seems that a solution would be educating and a deconstruction of a self implied cultural hierarchy, but it hasn't been that simple.
The second role of race that needs to be corrected is appropriateness of using race as an excuse. I know that, because of the ignorance of others, there may still be some challenges when it comes to achievement in society (and I am referring to progressive societies), but it's not impossible. There is no excuse for any minority in this day and age to say that they can't achieve something because of the skin color, especially in a country with a minority President. It is conceivable that it may be harder for some depending on family background, but not impossible.
I am not ashamed to say that I am proud to be white, proud of my culture. I am not a racist, I say it along with all other races who are proud to be who they are. With the ever increasing influence of other cultures in this country I would hope that minorities can learn to appreciate the white culture as they expect white to appreciate theirs and understand (there's that word again) that the white citizens of today are not the ones responsible for the hardships of minority ancestors from the past.
Submitted by Damian Trudell, Visit his blog - "My Thoughts"
#6 My Kids Are
My parents witnessed true racism and segregation. I read about it. My kids don't even know what racism is (yet). In three generations, we have moved both further away from racism and further away from the "identities" of color that once defined us. Can you imagine what my grandchildren will think about race and color? I wonder...will there be some other defining aspect that brings us together for the common cause of discrimination? If not color, what will it be?
Submitted by Jason L. Buchanan. Visit his Facebook Profile.
