Being "Color-Blind" Makes You Blind to Racism

*Author's Note
In the following context, "color-blind" is in regards to those who claim to "not see race" as a factor in anything, not the condition in which one cannot perceive certain colors on the spectrum.


We all have that one person who says "I'm colorblind, I treat everyone equally" and in some cases we would like to be that person. In a perfect world, this is fine, however; we do not live in a perfect world. We still live in a racially discriminatory era under the guise of "equality" simply because we have laws against racism in the workplace, desegregated schools and so on. Laws do not make these prejudices go away and neither will being color-blind.

Being color-blind only excuses the behaviors that we are trying to overcome as a society. Consider the following: you perceive everyone as just gray, human-shaped, flesh creatures and you treat everyone the same way. Then you see a group of these gray, human-shaped, flesh creatures claiming that they are being treated unfairly. How likely is it that you would sympathize with them instead of writing them off as just unfortunate circumstances? So you justify it as "well perhaps it's something they did because it couldn't be anything else." Just because you, yourself do not perceive race as a factor does not mean that it is not a factor for other people.

We are still healing from the scars of slavery and persecution. With a wound as deep as this, you can't just slap a band-aid on it and say it's all better. You need treatment. You need ointment, or stitches, and anti-bacterial or whatever else you can get your hands on to make sure that the wound doesn't get infected. It takes time and attention.

Being "color-blind" is essentially not giving attention to the harmful effects that happen to certain groups of people. This allows the infection of prejudice to run rampant and no amount of laws or band-aids will prevent it from spreading.

On Criminal Justice and Its Reform

Our criminal justice system in the United States is broken in more ways than one. It is broken in so many ways that it needs a literally complete overhaul from the ground up. One way that it is broken is how we view that it should work. We rely on the classical theory of deterrence which is an archaic method that dates back to the 18^th century. It's far too simplistic to truly be effective in our incredibly complex world. Deterrence focuses on preventing people from doing illegal activities by implementing certain, swift justice on criminals. The line of thinking is “crime feels good so enact a pain response to prevent people from doing it or have them learn not to do it again”. It's straightforward but that's the problem. People commit crimes for a myriad of reasons from ignorance of the law, to necessity, to spur of the moment, and so on. We need to address these issues instead of just issuing out punishment and hoping that they “get the message”. In order to move away from this line of thinking, we need to do the following:

First things first, end the “War on Drugs”. Seriously. This is the most ineffective thing enacted as it only keeps drug addicts in jail and not as productive members of society. Not only this but it is an absurd waste of money. Colorado had legalized marijuana and now they are rolling in money from the taxes on marijuana alone. Their profits are around one billion (with a “B”) dollars per year. This isn't including money saved in tax payer's money by keeping people out of prisons for being caught with an ounce.

Next, we take that money that is gained and redirect it to drug rehabilitation for addicts. This doesn't mean that we're keeping drugs illegal. Just as we have Alcoholics Anonymous (last I checked, alcohol is legal) we should have the same for those who are addicted to substances and want to break their habit. Currently, our rehab programs are garbage. We need actual professionals who can help individuals instead of babysitting them for a few weeks and sign paperwork saying that they did their twelve step program and found Jesus.

Also, we need to open up community centers for youth in problem areas, typically the high poverty ones. High poverty equals high crime. When a young person's safety is threatened, they will do all they can to make sure to counter it. Churches should also be involved in providing a safe space as well as mentors for kids. It would also benefit if community service officers were part of these programs. We hear so often how police officers end up killing whatever suspect they engage with and I believe it is because of this lack of connection.

Nothing is perfect and I don't expect changes to happen overnight nor be fixed overnight. People are still going to commit crimes, when they do, we need to stop dehumanizing them. We can't just rationalize any abuse that may happen to them by guards or other inmates. We also need to work on rehabilitation of these criminals according to their crimes and, also, overseen by professional social workers. Whether it's domestic violence, shoplifting, rape, or anything else, we need to find a root cause. Nothing happens without reason.

Not dehumanizing felons also extends to when they are free to rejoin society. They should be able to vote, find work, and have a home without being blocked at every corner (within reason). Treating these people like some Untouchable caste only increases the rate of recidivism. It's basically a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you treat someone like they're subhuman then they'll eventually act like it. This happens with people who are abused, especially children. Leave justice to the criminal justice system. Anything else is just petty vengeance for something that most likely did not affect you in any way (unless you are a victim personally).

There are more ways that the justice system needs to be redesigned but these I believe are the major things that we need to work on as a society. What we currently have does not work. Things can change and sitting on our hands and saying “it will happen anyway” allows our current state to continue and eventually implode. If we do nothing, if we allow abuse and apathy run rampant in our society, then we deserve the consequences.

Say what?

Wait... threatening dissenters and civil protesters with violence is a GOOD thing, and the perfect representation of American Freedom®?

Actually, yeah... that's the American Way of Life®! We've been doing it for 250 years.

#murica 

How do you cheer for the threat of violence against people and then say "God bless ALL his children?" How do you say that people who disagree with you should be shot, and then call that freedom?

How do these completely opposing thoughts exist in the same head at the same time? This goes beyond cognitive dissonance, beyond hypocrisy. There has to be another name for it. I need it to make sense.

This is another perfect time for...

Patheos article found here.

"We have to fight to protect the American way of life!"

The idea that there is only one, true way of life in a country made up of millions of people in different ethnic, cultural, economic, religious, and social groups, and that anyone who isn't living that way just isn't trying hard enough, is beyond ignorance. It's disgusting.

There is no "American way of life." It is a concept created by the elite in order to convince everyone else that they are where they are in life by their own choice, rather than predominately by factors they have little or no control over.

"Work harder!" they say, while they deny you quality education that will lead to successful occupation and financial stability.

"Stop whining!" they say, when you try to point out inequality in society.

"Be an American!" they say, when you try to point out the fact that America was not founded on the principles of equality for everyone, only the power of a few.

#checkyourprejudice #checkyourprivilege

First-Second-Third World. What does it even mean?

We use these arbitrary terms as if they are free-standing classifications that exist in reality, separate from ourselves. We completely overlook the fact that we created them, from our own perspective, based on who we believed were equal to us, and who were less than.

We organized the world into groups, and we fight to keep people into the groups that we created for them. We use the labels we created to justify our treatment of the people we ourselves labeled.

Maddening, isn't it?

This article explains it.

Greatness, as defined by... what exactly?

The biggest lie that Americans tell themselves is that we are the "greatest" country in the world in that our culture is somehow more evolved than other cultures. That the bad things that are "inherent" in other cultures do not exist in ours. 

The biggest lie that Americans tell themselves is that we are the "greatest" country in the world in that our culture is somehow more evolved than other cultures. That the bad things that are "inherent" in other cultures do not exist in ours. I am here to tell you that it all happens here. Every bad thing that we want to believe only happens in other places happens right here. Because it's people. It's all people, and we are all capable of terrible things. Update: The backlash of this post on my Facebook page was a barrage of "America really IS the greatest!," "If you don't like it, LEAVE!," "America has the most freedom!," "Where else could you go to be treated as well as you are here?!" Which completely missed the intent of my statement, but absolutely proved my point.  So, I guess I should be grateful. #murica

I am here to tell you that it all happens here. Every bad thing that we want to believe only happens in other places happens right here. Because it's people. It's all people, and we are all capable of terrible things.

All these votes for Trump suddenly made sense when I think about how many people I've heard say that if you don't like America exactly the way it is, then you should leave, or be forced to leave.

If I had a nickel... 

If you don't think there is a problem with the social system the way it is, that means it works for you. Congratulations! Want a cookie?

If you believe that, since it works for you, it must also work for every single other person in the country, then you are living in blissful ignorance. Congratulations! Want a cookie?

Oops. I'm fresh out of cookies.