Thought this one was worth sharing...
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Rule 1: Don't be colorblind
"Chances are, you've heard a co-worker say something along the lines of:
"I didn't even notice he was black. Everyone is the same to me. I don't see color! He could be black, brown, purple, or polka-dotted, it wouldn't make a difference to me!"
What's wrong with the statement above?
Well, for one, it's a big fat lie. All of us notice variations in skintone, facial features, hair texture, eye color, and the myriad of other phenotypic factors that cause us to draw conclusions as to what race a person is.
Then why do people insist on claiming that they don't notice color? Often, it's because they are scared to death of being labeled a racist.
But here's the thing. Noticing a person's race doesn't make you racist. What does make you racist is if you make assumptions about that person's intellectual, physical, or emotional characteristics based on the race you think the person is.
Yes, even if those assumptions you make are positive. Ideas about "strong black women" or "smart Asians" are still racist because they reduce human beings to two-dimensional caricatures and assume that race predetermines intellectual, physical, and emotional traits.
More importantly, when you proclaim that you're colorblind, what you're really implying is that race doesn't matter in America. While it's true that race is not a biological reality, it is a very real social construct that has a profound impact on our lives. Race still matters because racism is alive and well. Pretending otherwise negates the everyday experiences of millions of people of color in this country.
NAACP Chairman Julian Bond said it best when he stated that colorblindness means being "blind to the consequences of being the wrong color in America today."
Also, when's the last time you saw a purple person?"
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Borrowed from New Demographic.




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