Why is colorblindness not enough?

I have heard it a million times from white folk. "I am not racist. I see everyone alike. I am colorblind. What more do you want?"

Great . . . sort of.

Something about this logic feels hollow.

But why? Didn't MLK say, "I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

So what is wrong with colorblindness?

Lately, I have been thinking of a few reasons why colorblindness is not enough.  I am curious to hear if folks resonate with these thoughts.  Perhaps you can expand on them.

1. True love isn't blind.  We say love is blind, but if a person who doesn't know me, says that they love me, it doesn't mean much. For someone's affirmation to really mean something they have to know something about me.

When I tell people around here in Brooklyn that I am from Canada, inevitably, I hear something like this, "Oh, I like Canada.  Its nice. I went to Toronto once."

Seriously?

That's like saying you love Canada because you like the smell of Pine Sol.  You don't know anything about where I am from by visiting Toronto once.  I hear the good intentions, but it doesn't mean much..

To love or affirm someone, you can't be blind.  What makes me feel loved is when someone takes the time to hear what it feels like to drift asleep by a glassy lake serenaded by the distinctive laugh of the loon or what it felt like to travel across America in a sweaty station wagon as a missionary coming "home" to a place that didn't feel like home. Don't say I am like you, when you don't really know me.

2. Colorblindness is not enough because sometimes it means, "I see you as if you were a White person." Can you pause a minute and listen for the hurtful assumptions?  The statement is not saying that you actually accept that person. You are saying that you are accepting them into the White culture -- at least if they keep "acting White."  The hidden assumption is that the Black person wants to be White and that it is somehow better to be White.  

3. Declaring colorblindness minimizes the African American experience. The truth is that as a White person I don't have the foggiest understanding of the African American experience. As White people we think we can erase all of someone's life time of experience just by saying we don't see it!

I would call this the Great White Fantasy.  Racism has been called "America's original sin."  It's the only thing that brought us to a civil war. I really think it is a source of deep shame to most White people. At times the shame is unconscious and is expressed as anger.  More than anything, I believe that most White people, want the issue to disappear from our history and culture.  We think that by proclaiming our personal commitment to equality, we can erase race. While it might be the first step, it won't go away with just a proclamation.

Let's make it super concrete.  Imagine you walk down the street and pick-pocket $20 that is hanging out of someone's purse.  When they notice and ask you about it, you say, "Oh, I believe in fairness. Let's split the $20.  You have $10 and I will take $10, and just forget that this ever happened."

Jesus idea of justice is much more extreme than we would like.  "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins"(Hebrews 9:22).  Its not that easy to get ride of something as evil as racism.  I really believe it takes a spiritual and sometimes physical act of death.  Are we White people willing to die?

4, Claiming colorblindness is claiming that we have not internalized the dominant values of our culture.  I am afraid that this is classic, individualistic, American narcissism. What is more American than freedom and independence for the individual?  We believe in the self-made man.  Unfortunately, we have been blinded to the collective forces that shape our values and beliefs.   We do well to cry with the ancients, "Woe to me . . . .  I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips" (Isaiah 6:5).

5. Claiming colorblindness is a conversation ender. It's really an attempt to end the dialogue rather than grow in our understanding and enter the place of listening.

So, I am afraid I have to say it like it is. Colorblindness is still blindness.

The good news is that there is an alternative.  Light.  "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." (I John 1:7).  Freely acknowledging our junk and the junk of our culture, cracks open the door for fellowship and healing. Like Isaiah, if we can declare that we are unclean and we live in an unclean culture, perhaps then we can experience a bit of the fire of God's purification in our lives.  Perhaps we can experience a death and a resurrection.

I know that's what I want!

What do you have to show for yourself? Reflections on "results."

During a recent moment of reflection, I got to thinking about results.  

I put an awful lot of effort into things that don't show much results. Sometimes I feel like a hamster stuck on one of those little wheels.  Am I a "loser" or "disaster" as Donald Trump likes to say?  Should I work harder -- change my strategy perhaps? 

I found myself asking a hard question, "Do results matter?"

Results do matter. When I paid a pretty penny last year to get a new water and sewer line put in, I wanted results. Though I appreciated that the workers put in a lot of effort, results is what I was looking for. 

A "results mindset" has served our culture well, or has it? From America back to Great Britain and further back to Rome, we have always valued results more than effort.  Show me the bottom line, don't tell me how hard you worked.  What is the profit margin?  What is the quality of your product?  Prices should be determined by results alone.  It is in our economics in the form of capitalism, in our polictics in the form of term limits, in sports on the jumbo-tron -- have you ever wondered why we use so many number in Western sports? It's in religion too where successful pastors are rewarded with TV contracts and book deals, unsuccessful ones are fired. We have built super-powers on this mantra, from the Roman Empire, to Spain, to Portugal, to Germany, to Russia, to England and now the USA we dominated the world through our tyrannical commitment to this ideal.  Results at all costs!  We built unprecedented wealth through industrialization and a focus on efficiency. There is unprecedented innovation in medicine because of a profit motive.  The standard of living has skyrocketed in the last several centuries due in part to our focus on results.  Even in my profession of Social Work, we talk a lot about evidenced-based practice. The assumption is that we should not be doing anything that doesn't produce results.  

Like a multitude of minions, it seems we all chime in . . . 

No whining.  Just do it. 

In most recent times, some say this focus on results is slipping away, and we need to "make America great again."  There be some truth to that, but when I think about the real impact of my life, this results mindset rings hollow. Do results alone matter? What about the process?  Does the effort in the process have any intrinsic value separate from the measurable results? Does winning alone matter or is there value in how you play the game?"  

It seems there are at least five problems with the results mindset. 

1. The results mindset begs a finite definition of success, but most of what I want for people in my life is infinitely complex.  I want my sons to be obedient yet independent, steadfast yet flexible, compassionate but not soft, honorable but not proud -- the list could go on and on.  The results I really want defy reasonable definition.  The results mindset works well when you are talking about sewer pipes -- not so good when you are talking about the impact that my life has on my sons.  

2. The results mindset assumes that I can control others.  Control is really the dark underbelly of the results mindset. In the rush to results, I take control of the whole thing.  I need to sterilize the environment and take complete control of all variables to get clear, precise, good results.   That works in some sciences but not so much when impacting people.  It makes me think of the workplace adage, "The beatings will continue until morale improves."   

3. The results mindset tends to reduces the focus to minor outcomes. In my profession, we help people get jobs.  We are successful at it partly because we focus narrowly on jobs. The real needs of young people like love, confidence, compassion, responsibility, etc. we don't measure because we couldn't possibly document results even though these are the most important things.  So we settle for a small definition of success because we need to show measurable results.

4. The results mindset assumes that life is linear. A causes B which then causes C. If C doesn't happen, B is to blame, or perhaps A. People are just so much more complex than that. Behavior is reciprocal and fluid. "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." (John 3:8 NIV)

5. The results mindset exhausts me because it puts responsibility on the cause (me) which leads to the effect (people I am suppose to be helping). In the middle of the exhaustion, I forget to be the person I am. The Gospel puts being before doing and results are barely mentioned. "So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith," (Galatians 3:26 NIV). "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."(Ephesians 2:10 NIV). In Scripture, results are way behind both "being" and "doing!" In fact, Jesus repeatedly promises disaster on those who try to make a difference in people's lives. People will even think they are doing good by getting rid of you!

So ...

"Good news" I say to myself. When it comes to the measure of my life on people, the pop phrase is actually pretty true. "Be the change you wish to see in the world." "Results" are important but always imperfect. I like Paul's words, "... our first duty is to be faithful to the one we work for" (I Corinthians 4:2, CEV). Having heard His voice personally, that's a life worth living. It is certainly a long way from the hamster cage.