If you look up the definition for “people of color”, the definition is “a person who is not white or of European parentage.”
According to the Center for American Progress, more than half of the demographics of the United States are composed of POC’s.
So why are people of color constantly subjugated against?
With the current political climate being aimed at primarily non-white citizens, America needs to step back and realize what’s going on. Starting from the literal founding of the United States, white people have colonized basically every other race and have deemed them as inferior to the color white.
Keep in mind, this isn’t a complaint against white people, rather, a complaint against the growing compliance to become a bystander while addressing the growing concerns of violence against people of color.
I’ve never really understood why “I don’t see color” was a bad phrase until I dug deeper to understand what ‘color’ really means. Now, with people claiming that they don’t see color, there is a complete eradication of identity being formed once again.
The phrase itself, in my opinion, is contextualized in a negative connotation. For someone to say that they don’t see something like race, essentially, it means they acknowledge societal ‘whiteness’, and no longer understand why erasing another race is problematic. Everyday Feminism phrases it well: there has never been an instance where a White American has told another White American that “they don’t see their color.” (it’s probably because they aren’t oppressed, but that’s beside the point.) If you think about it too, the phrase essentially says “everyone is white, there is no violence” which is absolutely not true.
This term has been coined to mean ‘racial colorblindness.’ Colorblindness is not the solution to solve POC violence when it perpetuates the same ‘invisibility‘ that racism does as well. This revolves back to the idea: if you can’t see the problem, how can you solve it? You can’t.
This colorblind world will only enforce a loss of identity. For people who have come from heritage’s built off of systematic violence, there is no end. Acknowledge that the different identities that comprise the United States are what makes it unique.
I personally think the most unproblematic way to address these issues is to stand against them. Of course, it’s easier said than done. Don’t believe that by thinking the problem away, it will eventually do so; it doesn’t work like that.
