Ignore It by Being ‘Colorblind’
From award-winning actor Morgan Freeman to controversial news commentator Bill O’Reilly, too many public figures believe the key to solving racism is to simply ignore it. These days it’s even taken on a new moniker of “colorblind.” The problem is that ignoring racism or pretending you “don’t see” color is not even coming close to providing an actual solution to a problem that has impacted generations of Black people. “Colorblindness doesn’t acknowledge the very real ways in which racism has existed and continues to exist, both in individuals and systemically,” explains The Guardian’s Zach Stafford. “By professing not to see race, you’re just ignoring racism, not solving it.”
Extend a ‘Hand in Love’ to White People
Rapper Common shocked many of his fans when he, just a short while after creating an award-winning song for Selma, suggested the key to solving racism was extending a “hand in love” to white people. While promoting hatred, obviously, isn’t a solution to racism, loving white people is no better of a plan to bringing down institutional racism. As senior enterprise reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Stacey Patton, explained, the “hand in love” philosophy has many serious flaws. “This whole idea presumes that racism is about love, hate or any other subjective or fleeting emotion, rather than a deeply entrenched systemic institutional form of oppression that’s at the foundation of this country,” Patton writes. “This suggestion not only shows his lack of understanding of Dr. Martin Luther King’s ‘beloved community’ of justice and equality; it puts the responsibility on Black Americans for solving racism, further blaming Black people for persistent inequality.”
