Color-Blindness Isn’t Racist | Hacker News Reader

Color-Blindness Isn’t Racist

thefp.com

23 pointsca98am7917 comments

George Lewis Ruffin, America’s first black judge, described Phillips as “wholly color-blind and free from race prejudice.

Just saying that would be enough to damage or destroy Ruffin's public image in today's climate. In the religion of identity politics, racism is original sin. If you're a member of a group that's currently considered white pretending you haven't committed the sin is committing the sin.

I really wish there were more people interested in addressing racial discrimination without hammering a wedge between races. Tell people day and night they're on a particular team and there's nothing they can do about and sooner or later they'll start playing for that team.

It's amazing to me that this argument needs to be made. It is self-evident and was the premise for the original civil rights movement.

> the belief that we should strive to treat people without regard to race in our personal lives and in our public policy.

I found this line very interesting. Under what circumstances would I treat someone differently in my private life because of their race? I literally can’t think of any, but if I could, I’d think that was a significant flaw on my part.

If I think I shouldn’t do that in private life, what would have to be true in order for me to think it was okay to do that same thing by government or institutional policy?

I think the difference might be that in private life, you supposedly try to get to know and value or judge the other person, well, personally.

Government policy must be, for it to be possible to execute, more mechanical.

I agree, but I don’t conclude from that that government or academic institutions should discriminate [positively or negatively] on the basis of race.

(If anything, I'd think the need to be more mechanical should push us away from differential treatment based on race, rather than towards it.)

This is anti-intellectualism. Yes, you have some premise about subconscious bias and your inferred that conscious awareness of skin color is necessary or more generally that skin color is relevant again.

This reminds me of the a John Steward show where someone said they wouldn't see color. The audience booed and pointed their thin fingers with thick accusations. This reminds me of The Wave from Morton Rhue instead of a step towards more enlightenment. Perhaps people are so afraid to not be on the "right side history"-club that their facilities randomly fail. But there are less excuses for academics.

I mean, go ahead, ignore the civil rights movements on your own peril. You know better, you are an academic and surely very smart. You could also just not wear pants tomorrow or accuse people of not wearing them.

You may want to read about how this works outside of the US. There are several viable models for multiculturalism.

I am not from the US. I know there are places where this approach isn't feasible, especially in ethnic conflicts.

But the idea that colorblindness is outdated and a liberal US TV audience cheering against people with allegedly backward views merits some criticism. This is group think without any reflection and certainly not the next step to combat racism or any prejudice.

Again, contrary to most civil rights movements, including their own.

I think I may have interpreted your original comment backwards. Upon re-reading, it sounds like you are defending colorblidness, which would put us in agreement.

It's hard to tell; I think we're talking past each other at this point.

Could you please state your point directly?

Even by this account, America has only even been trying to be 'race blind' since the 1960s, and even then it was only the liberal elites in Universities saying it, and we know what kind of Marxists institutions 1960s american universities were, full of communist jews (desipite all the efforts to keep them out) trying to promote race mixing and so forth to undermine western civilisation.

But now, the right, rather than carry banners saying "race mixing is communism" like they did at the start of the 1960s, is telling us that those crazy marxist university professors were right, we shouldn't treat people from differenc races as if they are inferior.

I guess we need to check back in a few decades to see whether what current crazy campus fads turn out to be basic common sense after being fought by reactionaries for decades. Will it go the way of Civil Rights, Feminism, Gay Rights, hacky sack and other such passing fads? Only time will tell.

That this post is flagged is outrageous.

I do believe studies attesting color-blindness being counter productive to combat racism are based on the ever same wrongly inferred assumptions. Not that quantifying racism itself was done thoroughly either. Nevertheless it is the new dogma in some social sciences and there is little tolerance towards basic tenets of social rights movements. Academics that know better in my opinion.

I do think there is ample evidence that their approach is much worse in a vast majority of cases.

We should stop talking about color completely. That will be the true end of racism.

this is like trying to cure cancer by banning any mention of tumors

This is how red heads are not oppressed anymore. We literally forgot they ever were. This is the goal.

no it's not. if you let cancer be, it festers and kills you. if you let color be, it does nothing and people can get on with their lives, except for the absolutely woke ones, who then have to find a new hobby.

Race is one of those meaningless divisions that the globalist elites want people to think about at all times. As much as the "progressives" claim to be "anti-racist", it's they who turn every single interaction into a lecture about race.

It's obvious why they want to suppress the idea that disregarding race is a positive thing. How else would they be able to continue their race grifting?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com