Color-blind Approach

In class discussion we were asked "How do cultural and social factors affect who you form relationships with?" One of my classmates responded that they do not affect who she formed relationships with. Her response implied that individual characteristics of the person she was forming the relationship with were what determined how close she would be with that person. I liked her response. I think it is important to treat people as individuals and not act a certain way toward them because of social and cultural factors. I agreed with her color blind approach, and I decided to go back to chapter 2 in our text and see what it said about the color blind approach.

Our text says that the color-blind approach is counterproductive to the improvement of U.S. race relations--- for many reasons. The book states that no matter how hard we try, we will always notice color. Based on our text, the second reason the color-blind approach is counterproductive is because it discourages meaningful conversations about race relations. The last reason our book disagrees with the color blind approach is because it allows people to ignore, deny, disregard, and therefore continue to support the status quo--- existence of racial inequalities (Martin & Nakayama, 55).

I disagree with our text. I think that with a color blind approach, eventually there would be less racial inequality in society. I agree that we will always notice color, but with the color blind approach, a person's color will say no more than what color their skin is. A person should not be judged on the color of their skin. They should be judged as an individual. The second point our book makes is also false. A color blind world would encourage people to talk about race relations and how to make them equal and fair. Eventually race relations would be equal and fair, and there would be no more need to speak of them. I think the last point the book makes is also false. I think that living in a not color blind world, it is taboo to talk about race because of inequalities. In a color blind world everyone would be considered equal, and therefore everyone would speak freely and the "status quo of racial inequalities" would be no more. I would love to live in a world where race was nothing more than the color of your skin, and that no one would judge each other or stereotype because of race.