Why Color Blindness Is Obviously The Right Thing

An appeal to common sense

Growing up, I went to a public school in a city in Massachusetts. There were all types of people with families from various backgrounds. It was a genuine melting pot.

The school was an admirable example of diversity thriving. Among the reasons for this was not only the good teachers there (including my mom, thanks mom), but also that we never thought of each other as anything other than fellow humans. It did not matter that this person was from Ghana, that this person's grandparents were Irish, or that this person’s parents were from the Dominican Republic. They were all just people.

The only exception to this healthy dynamic that I can recall is when we would do this thing we called all-sing. All-sing was good fun. All the students would go sit in the gym, and we would all sing!

However, during all-sing there was this one song that, despite its pure intentions and obvious desire to have a unifying message, had the opposite effect. “We’re All A Family Under One Sky,” is the name and the chorus, which was fine. But the interludes, which would sing about different cultures, are what would bring trouble during all-sing. For example, some of the interlude lyrics read:

Oh we’re Italians and we’re Irish

And we’re Mexican and we’re German too

Oh we’re Korean, we’re Nigerian

We’re Russian and American too

I’ll never forget the way many students would react to these parts of the song. Whenever kids who happened to belong to a certain group heard it called, they would literally stand up and scream. Contrary to most of the rest of the time at the school, this felt divisive. I remember how uncomfortable it sometimes felt, like there was a sort of tension that never existed before we became more conscious about how we were different.

This story may sound trivial, but it represents something serious. It is an example of what is so twisted and foolish about the way many people talk and think about race in America. Of course, there is nothing wrong with being proud of your heritage. But there is this perverse hyper-obsession with race that now exists. We are like children listening to these interludes. This has created a pathological culture where identity politics and books like How To Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi gain influence.

Central to these philosophies is a focus on a person’s race. It places it atop a pedestal as the most important information about someone. You’re this. He is that. I’m white. She is black. Identify with this thing that you have no control over. The color of your skin is your ultimate defining trait.

All in the name of anti-racism.

This preoccupation with the color of people’s skin is a problem. It is not inevitable, but the reality seems to be that the more we obsess over things like race and ethnicity, the more likely it is that people start to feel alienated and hostile toward each other. Which is foolish, because they are things you do not choose. Whereas what type of person you are is something you choose. Think about it! The reason you like a person is not their skin tone, but rather their reliability, their sense of humor, their charisma. Who they are as a person.

And upon deeper thought, you realize anti-racist ideologies and identity politics—so full of hatred and bitterness—are in direct contrast to the teachings of the shining example of a leader who improved race relations in America, Martin Luther King, Jr. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness;” he said, “only light can do that.” Known to be a devout Christian, King embodied the ethic of radical love from Christianity, also saying things like, “hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” This echoes teachings of the Buddha, as it is written in the Dhammapada: “Hatred can never put an end to hatred; love alone can. This is an unalterable law.” This is wisdom.

I can already hear the objections. There is wisdom in those ideas, but you’re naive, proponents of social justice will argue. We need to focus on race, actually, because past prejudices carry into the present day, and we need to take measures to fix that. So to do this, of course, we do need a culture that focuses on race. Indeed, the solution to past discrimination is present discrimination.

But this idea fails under scrutiny. Like communism, it is one of those ideas that can sound good, but in practice is a bad idea. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs, say the communists. Okay. But the problem is—who decides each person’s abilities and each person’s needs? In practice, historically, tyrants. This also applies to ideas about speech. We need to silence hate speech and misinformation, say the censors. Okay. But the problem is—who decides what counts as hate speech and misinformation? In practice, historically, tyrants. We need to make up for past injustices that were a result of placing a big emphasis on people’s race by...placing a big emphasis on people’s race? Wait, what? Does that actually even make sense? Also, who decides what “making up” for it looks like? Any guesses?

It’s clear many of the currently fashionable ideas about fighting racism are themselves deeply racist. They try to make you concentrate on the random difference of skin tone in people instead of highlighting our common humanity. They try to divide. They try to drive out darkness with darkness. Color blindness—not obsessing over and focusing on people’s race—is the opposite. And it is true to Martin Luther King Jr.’s original famous message: not to judge people on the color of their skin but on the content of their character. This is true to the ideal we strive for in the West: to treat everyone as equals. If we are wise, we will realize this common-sense principle and stop letting bad philosophies turn us into emotional children yelling during all-sing.