https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyl ... 29c22f6e59
I think we talked about this awhile ago but I thought this article was excellent on why, even though it seems like the right thing to do, ignoring people's race is actually wrong. For one thing it eliminates a large part of their identity.
Read this sentence:But in recent years — with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, as social justice activism has crossed into the mainstream and discussions about race have dominated both national headlines and the vitriolic political landscape — more attention has been focused on the role that white people must play in addressing racism, and more parents like Cassell are trying to learn how to speak to their children about the realities of the world they live in.
A man was going down the street and an Asian woman joined him.
This is why colorblindness is not good. The man in the sentence is assumed to be white. But why? Because we've been conditioned to think that white people are the norm or the default. The reality is (particularly globally) white people are not and should not be the default. When that happens, kids who are not white can feel that they are weird or not ordinary or even creepy or bad.
I hope some of you at least take this to heart. The world is better when everyone is considered equally, not when all colors but white are ignored.“It’s not just one talk. It’s not ‘The Talk.’ It’s the practice of race consciousness on a daily basis,” she says. For instance: “We can’t walk into a store that is selling all white baby dolls and say nothing. Silence is itself sending a message, and that message is not the one that I want. I don’t want my white children to grow up thinking that white is better.”
-Jennifer Schlickbernd, mom of bi-racial son and an African American.