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The following Featured Post comes from Relationship Group 3, Thread 26.
1. Colorblindness I've been reading a book about teaching reading comprehension and came across a great line today that made me think of all of you.
3. Wow tough question--you sure do ask them don't you? NO there is no such thing as colorblindness. At least not in my world. I say this having been around black people in some way most of my life. In high school, my very best friends were black, and I generally spent more time with their families--I felt safer there--than with my own. I have dated black men over the years at different points in my life. and in this case I will allow, I just always dated the men I most enjoyed the experience of being with. I just dated the people who most interested me and kept me in good conversation. So to an extent, I kind of felt that is the closest I came to color blindness--in my dating relationships. I say I don't think it's possible because other people always remind me of color (lest I forget that I am married to a black man, I never need look far for some reminder from someone).
6. Seems to Me That color should not matter, but as Ethiesgirl said, it does matter to a great many people whether a propective date is white or black, or green or red too. Your friends may not "see" you as black (or white, etc.) but other people will and do.
7. color matters I must admit that one compliment that I cherish from some black co-worker/friends once is "You're not white, you're just Angie." So what does that make me, opaque?, I've always wondered. I think having friends of other races really helps encourage the good kind of colorblindness, where you really don't see them in terms of color. But one has to be careful not to develop the bad kind, like the illustration above where a friend made a racist remark. I think that color does matter in this society in both good and bad ways. The bad way is when people are judged poorly because of it, only by the shade of their flesh. The good way is when one can say yes I'm black (latino, etc.) and this is my ethnicity and history and it's a good thing. Hopefully, in this society we will be able to work toward a time when colorblindness will not be necessary. When being of a certain ethnicity characterized by dark skin will just be an ethnic difference, not a political difference that plays itself out in racism. Until then, a certain amount of colorblindness is probably a good thing to implement. Hmmm...
8. I do see color I understand what everyone’s saying but I don't see it the same way. I see all the different shades of color because it is a physical part of who we are. There are to many beautiful shades of skin color to omit it. No matter what we do we will still see it everyday. It's not the color that’s the problem it is our perception of what it means. You can say "There's another black girl over there" or you can say, "That's a beautiful black woman standing there". The first phrase suggested she was an annoyance or problem and the later describes a woman most men would want to be with. Skin color is just like hair color or eye color and it's time we treat it as such, a physical description and not a social one.
9. here, here, smoothtap I truly could not have said it better. As I was scrolling through the posts, I was thinking to myself, "that's a good point, but my take is a little different. . ." Then I read your post and it was as though you were livin' in my brain.
11. colorblind is something that I think is impossible. As smoothtap said, we are all different shades of color. By the way, that was perfectly said.
12. Don't want to be colorblind... I always felt that saying you are colorblind is like saying there is something wrong with being a different skin color. Like saying it's not ok to notice it in a positive way. I don't ever want to be colorblind! I love, cherish and enjoy seeing different colors of skin...from milky white, to the deepest brown... I think it's part of our makeup, and, like smooth said, it's a physical, not a social identity. I think we should never be colorblind, but enjoy, and see the different colors. Imagine how dull our world would be if we looked the same?!
13. color blindness- Strictly my own oppinion. The underlining intent of color blindness, I belive, is to show a lack of negative judgement based on color. I do not believe that the whites who are attempting to be racially accepting of all people are comfortabel discribing color in such obvious ways as you suggest. It is though we fear that it will be misinterpeted as a judgement of color. I agree that we have been made with a wonderful palate of physical attributes and that each one should be celebrated. But in saying each one, we must recognize that fear, guilt and blame do not serve this purpose, (the underlying cause of racism), and be able to celebrate all cultures and skin colors. All societies in history have participated in the mistreatment of others to some degree. There are no societal saints. We have all had the oportunity to express each culture and race experience through our Souls journey. And if that is not part of your belief system, then we have all experienced each other through the grace of God. It is a strong belief of mine that we need to recognize our inter-conectiveness, and celebrate our individual ablities to be expressions of God. Sorry if this sounds too idealic, but, it is how I feel. I also know that there is fear in taking the leap of celebrating ourselves and others. For many , including me sometimes, it is just hard to 'wrap our brains around' in seeing all peoples as correct for thier path. Our experiences are integral to our Souls growth and when we out grow that need we move on to something new.
14. Antoinette... I think this was what I was trying to get at in my orriginal post. That on first coming to Seattle, it was very difficult for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I would be living in the black community. That fear was not based on any negative feelings I had about black people, but the shear intimidation of being surrounded by strangers that might or might not have accepted me or the color of my skin. I think perhaps we all feel this to some extent (please feel free to correct me). Those were the feelings I had to get past on my journey...my assumptions about the way I would be treated. I think this is one of the things society has taught us..that we will not be accepted by people of another race, and I think this is one of the big barriers that stands between us and a true appreciation of color. But again, I could be off base, and this is just my humble opinion. Read more featured posts here or continue reading thread 26 from Relationship Group 3. |
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