A small dose of link-suey

[sanacrow]

Yea! Putting the responsibility where it belongs

WTFF??? I'm sorry, but we'll need to see your genitals

And an "a-ha" moment about particular folks' reactions: That does not mean what you think it means
"... I finally grokked what was going on after some thought. It's something I've always understood on a subconscious level, but never really articulated before. It's something along the lines of: how dare I use these people's own words and attitudes against them? How dare I, in public, on well-read blogs and in the company of influential and intelligent people, repeat what they have said or written and expose it for the crap it really is? ..."

Here's some really good links about some of the problems with that whole "colorblind" approach to racism

Oh, and there's a new Disney netbook coming out - in magical blue or princess pink - that's a rebrand of the same box, at the same price, as the Asus Eee I've been looking at. ::Insert squee here::

And now... back to the daily schlog, and a vain attempt to make the middle of a construction zone ready for meetings tomorrow.

Comments

[dana3.livejournal.com]

The colorblind thing remains a WTF for me. I was raised colorblind, and saw the riots as being about equality rather than necessarily skin color. (Also laughed at the hypocrisy of my parents when I brought home an other-raced date.)

In my professional practice, race only matters to me in terms of culture -- "praying on it" means something different in black culture around here than in white culture, whether educated or not in either case. So I use culturally appropriate references, am unbelievably polite to paupers and to princes, and tend to find people culturally appropriate diets. (I cringed when I found an Asian post-op being served meat, potatoes and gravy. Surprised he wasn't eating? I wasn't. Found him fish and rice, at least he could eat *some*thing of his supper. The gratitude was almost painful to witness.)

This attitude I encapsulate as "and we're all pink when we're peeled". The rest is mostly cultural, and it's good to be multiculturally fluent whenever possible. Always more to learn that way!

The genitalia thing was just an OMG, you've GOT to be kidding. No, I'm afraid you're *not* kidding. A dear friend went through some similar stuff, only being a FT employee of the state meant they couldn't put her through quite all that many changes. No photographs required.

Good luck with pulling off a meeting in the destruction zone -- :Dana

[elf]

At its simplest and least offensive, least impressive, "colorblind" is insulting. It says to people of color, "a major part of your identity, a fact that has shaped your whole life, for which you may have suffered tremendous harm, is irrelevant to me; I'm going to pretend it doesn't exist."

If skin color meant no more to us than hair color... it would still be insulting. Blondes are presumed to be stupid; redheads are presumed to have a temper; bald men are allowed to look prestigious while bald women are either weird or "artistic." Pretending a person's hair color plays no part in their personality is not doing them any favors. However, we have no overt, systematic hair-color discrimination; ignoring hair color generally doesn't mean ignoring oppression or bigotry or a history of being targeted with hate.

But "colorblind" has more problems than that--because there are an awful lot of people who use it to mean "I just treat everyone like white people, and judge them as failures if they don't react the way I expect white people to react." And there is no way to "not pay attention to race" and not wind up lumped in with those people. There is probably no way to avoid *being* one of those people, without paying attention to race... and if you're paying attention to race, you're not being colorblind.

Race has no genetic foundation, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Money doesn't have a genetic existence either, nor language, but nobody pretends that those factors are irrelevant in communication or treatment. (Treatment as in, "how these people are treated," not "what medical actions are prescribed for these people.")