Colorblind only to themselves.

It seems that white America feels it has reached a social fork in the road so far as it pertains to racial discourse and identity. To the average “white” American, there are basically only two types of “white” person you can identify as in our society. The first is the less frequent, yet still existing, white supremacist/racist. This is the white person who feels pride about their European heritage and finds it superior (and by definition, others inferior) to all other groups based on skin color. The second is the more frequently seen and heard “color-blind” white person. This person sees that race shouldn’t make a difference in how we view each other (not a bad outlook in and of itself), but since that is true one then assumes we should treat social situations as though race is not a factor and does not exist, hence, being colorblind. This second mindset allows the colorblind person to not see being white as having any real effect on their lives.

Most white people are taught to be one or the other, with mainstream America favoring the colorblind ideology. Our conventional wisdom teaches us that being racist is bad and being colorblind is good. Choosing one or the other certainly seems to make a lot of sense; given these were the only two real options. The problem lies in the fact that this is a false dichotomy whites are presented and one they continue to acquiesce to day in and day out. The fact is that there are not only two choices and that there exist other philosophies on the matter. Furthermore, being a “colorblind” white person not only allows a person to not see the effects of whiteness in society, but also keeps a person from seeing discrimination based on color when it occurs, thereby perpetuating discrimination.

But, at least I'm not a "racist"!

In our post-Civil Rights social era, being “colorblind” has become the mainstream way to handle race discussions for many white Americans. Polls on racial topics consistently find white Americans supporting the principles of integration, racial intermarriage, and minorities living in or near their neighborhoods. On top of this, polls also show that white Americans believe racism to largely be a thing of the past. Others show whites supporting overwhelmingly the idea that racism is the fault of behavior and culture on the part of minorities. That said, whites in similar polls also reject the notion of legislation to overturn many years effects of institutionalized racism in America, namely that of Affirmative Action. Thus, we have what may be labeled a possible society of “Racism without racists”. That is, the deep divide in polls on whites opinions with respect to race and society reflect a want or need to maintain the racial order in the U.S. in a non-racial way. One can now vocally adopt non-racist platitudes and stands without completely combating racism or racist structures.

I just want everyone to be equal, so long as I'm still ahead.

An example of this mindset can be seen in the conservative, though not contained in this ideology, movement to end affirmative action in hiring policies on the grounds of it being “reverse discrimination” against white Americans. Affirmative Action as it is constructed today was started decades ago to combat what whites claim they are against now – affirmative action itself, only targeted towards a different group of people (you guessed it – whites). Indeed, white Americans themselves benefitted from various forms of affirmative action for the larger part of this country’s history and colonial times. Slavery, Jim Crow, restrictive Euro-centric Nationalization and Immigration laws, anti intermarriage-laws, and various government acts (such as the Homestead Act) all worked to maintain a white status quo, give European-Americans a leg up, and maintain dominance in American society. White Americans calling for the end of affirmative action policies today now claim a want for equal footing and grounding in employment and other areas when it was denied to so many for nearly 200 years. This all being said as numerous studies show existing inequalities, in various sectors of American life between minorities and whites. Nearly all studies show how affirmative action legislation has moved to reverse inequalities in the workplace, yet by removing this on the grounds of “reverse discrimination”, it would at best halt and stagnate any progress made on these grounds and at worst allow the work environment to return to a place of ethnic and racial discrimination.

Thus, being colorblind allows a person to make decisions based on their skin color without consciously, or perhaps only verbally, ignoring the effects their skin color has on them or their decision making. Even to those who acknowledge the existence of other races and their inequalities, it allows whites to ignore the privilege they’ve inherited in this country with respect to income, education, and power. To be more succinct, this ideology allows whites to be colorblind to whiteness. For example, a 2006 study by the University of Minnesota showed that while a majority of white respondents agreed that past discrimination put minorities at a disadvantage, a much lesser amount agreed that it had given whites an advantage. Thus, whites are allowed to see minorities as “underprivileged” without seeing themselves as “privileged”. Whites can see race as African-American disadvantage, but not one of white privilege.

In a Pew poll, 54% of whites said programs to increase the number of minorities in college are a good thing, compared with 87% of blacks. If based on similar polls, we can conclude that more often than not whites will admit to African-American disadvantage but will not support policies aimed at giving them advantages. That is to say, whites will admit aversively to being higher in society but only do so verbally in a way that justifies not feeling an inclination towards doing anything about it.

Where to go from here. A possible starting point.

So if one accepts that colorblindness is a dead-end in achieving racial justice in America, where can one turn? If the only other true choice would be that of racism, it would seem that we’ve come to a point of no resolution. The good news is that there is another choice: white racial awareness. That is, accepting ones heritage as European-white and even having pride about that, but acknowledging the inherited privilege one is given with that distinction in society and working to end the White-centric mold of American society. Racially savvy whites who work to overturn economic and social disadvantage by acknowledging their own advantages do more justice towards minorities than simply calling oneself colorblind and ignoring the world around them.