"Color Blindness is the New Racism"

 "Color Blindness is the New Racism"

Blog B - Armstrong and Wildman and "All Lives Matter"

Armstrong and Wildman argue in "Color Blindness is the New Racism," that we should be teaching color insight, rather than colorblindness. While this chapter was mainly focused on the education of law students, the four steps and example exercises were broad enough to exemplify in multiple spaces. Frist lifting up that colorblindness is a privilege, to not have to think about your race at all and assuming it is the constant norm. However, not talking about race and or pretending it doesn't exist actually perpetuates the inequalities in our society. When referring to our country during the time President Obama was elected, people claimed we lived in a "post-racial" world. It reminds me of an extra scene from the show "The Office" in which President Obama was elected and the boss Michael, called a meeting to talk about it. He, as a white privileged male called upon the two black employees to tell them that they are now in power and that means "we" being the white people do not have to uphold certain rules that we previously had being in power. I made this connection because as Armstrong and Wildman speak about this particular time in our society, Michael only stated what many white people were thinking and feeling at the time - racism doesn't exist, we don't have to hold our selves accountable if we aren't in the most powerful position in our country; while travesties like police brutality and human rights continued and at times, got worse for the people of color who are not in power. "Ignoring race may cause unintended harms." (p67)

Armstrong and Wildman advocate for "Color Insight as an Antidote to Colorblindness". Color Insight is a new term for me that I have never heard but the authors break it down into four practicable steps:

1. "considering context for any discussion about race
2. examining systems of privilege
3. unmasking perspectivelessness and white normativeness
4. combating stereotyping and looking for the the "me: in each individual"

"Color Insight admits that most of us do see race and underline the need to understand what that racial awareness might mean (Fiske & Neuburg, 1990)." As I understand it, and how they go on to explains is that as humans, our brains are programmed to see and make assumptions about others upon first seeing a person and devising these assumptions from past experiences, stereotypes etc. We categorize people upon first glance, therefore, literal colorblindness is unlikely. Color insight strives to provide people with the tools to understand equality. 

Connecting to the "All Lives Matter" strand, I find myself resistant to the word equality and wanting to focus more on equity. While both have their place, (and justice is the true systemic change), I feel equity relates to the "Black Lives Matter Movement;" the house on fire analogy lifts up that people do not need all the same things. After reading Armstrong and Wildman, and not having had the pleasure of experiencing the process and steps they go on to explain about color insight, I feel that equity is missing from "Color Blindness is the New Racism." 

The first step to practicing color insight is considering context for any discussion about race. This means that as an educator, we can create spaces to talk about race. The exercise they speak about is an observation of student everyday lives where they spend a day paying attention to the people around them, the roles they play and who has power amongst those roles in every given situation. It was interesting to see some samples from student where many immediately opened up about how they where treated differently in a privileged way and part of their privilege was also not speaking up for or against others. Next is examining systems of privilege where they explain a lesson "The Power Line" that allows students to assess where they have privilege and power. What I really resonate with is the visual of privilege, I have also seen lessons where teachers facilitate power and privilege by asking students to step forward when something applies to them, showing how some students are ahead of others just because of these identities. The third step is unmasking perspectivelessness and white normativeness, this one was hard for me to understand and separate from the previous example, but how I understand it is like S.C.W.A.A.M.P. the natural assumptions that are largely perceived as the normal standard. Lastly, the fourth step is combating stereotyping and looking for the the "me": in each individual, I thought of this as identifying your implicit bias but the activity also allows for people to find commonalities amongst each other and their families that they likely would have never thought of. 

Upon further thought, I can see how equity could show up in steps three and four. Understanding details like race and how that can affect situations for certain individuals, like a black client trying to sue a white doctor what change how you manage that particular case, meaning each client needs different things to be successful. Step four encourages students to understand and accept people as individuals. I would be curious to know what Armstrong and Wildman think about equity in relation to color insight now, a decade later. 

A Blog for DELPIT

 "A" Blog for Delpit

Other People's Children

The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children

The reading for Delpit was amazing. There were a couple of specific moments that I really appreciated her words and she so clearly conveyed educational problems I have had difficulty explaining to others. For example when explaining the first "culture of power" aspect, "issues of power are enacted in classrooms." She briefly lists "power of the teacher over the students... to determine another's intelligence or 'normalcy.' " The next line essentially explains the cycle of poverty, the achievement gap etc. by calling out the connection to school and the workforce. Naturally this is a much deeper issue than her brief explanation but I appreciated her "if/then" summary. I also really appreciated her inclusion but separation of low-income children. During past experiences in community work, I often found people lump poor, BIPOC together as if every black family is poor and every poor person is BIPOC. In my current work I am learning the difference between a BIPOC community and a poor white community and while both have educational challenges, they have different needs.

Personally, I deeply connected with her past experiences working in Native Alaskan communities where she relied on and needed others to inform her of the unspoken, or already known cultural norms. I do work with local Indigenous youth and families and rely on a team of people to share their cultural beliefs and practices with me in order for our programs and initiatives to b adapted to best serve their community. It was also upsetting to read the differences in authority by culture - for white people, a position is typically viewed as authority but in black communities it is earned through certain skills or characteristics. What I find upsetting is that white educators do not "hear" what black parents are saying when they try to explain how to manage their children in the classroom. I experienced this in my beginning years as an assistant site coordinator for a very diverse afterschool program. When I began to speak more like a particular black-young man's grandmother, and give direct orders and specific consequences that allowed more conversation between my staff and his guardians, he was no longer labeled a "trouble maker" from myself or my staff. 

Finally, I am grateful to Delpit's action steps, asking people to acknowledge that power exists for some and not others, specifically for white people to acknowledge their power and to hear others. She beautifully explains how we listen with our own beliefs and how challenging it is; "to put our beliefs on hold is to cease to exist as ourselves for a moment." Delpit reminds us that humans are of rational thought, though we may not understand their reasoning, personally, when it does not align with our own values and beliefs. Lately, I have been thinking more about the dehumanizing culture we find ourselves living in and trying to unlearn these practices and ways of life. In order to practice a humanizing and loving culture, I must recognize that everyone has unique experiences and values that they carry with them. My dear friend does this and I admire how she is able to put herself in the shoes of others and approach them in ways they understand so as to educate them the lens of race, equity, inclusion and antiracism. (this is work her and I both do)

The author Delpit argues that cultural relevancy is an important skill to have in order to teach our children for success in the larger society. While she does not use this terminology, she explains thoroughly that  both "skills" and "process" approaches to teaching are most successful in educating black and poor children. Delpit also asks that white people acknowledge their power, hear those in the minority with "open hearts and minds" and use their power in the advocacy of systems change from the top - down.

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