Color Blind Students' Association

[bana05]

What do y'all think?


Color Blind Students Association
By JASON L. LURIE
Crimson Staff Writer

Every year, I’m amused to see what new clubs have sprung up. There’s Freeze Magazine and the James Bond Film Society and the Give-Red-Man-an-Oscar Club (also known as the Harvard Coalition for Drug Policy Reform). But even with the rapidly expanding list

Comments

[bana05]

Thanks for responding. We are having a big discussion about it on my choir's e-mail list, so I decided to put it here to read your thoughts on it.

I disagree with the premise. easy to ask "why does it matter?" when it doesn't in your life. It's a different world for non-white, non-heterosexual, non-english-speaking, non-Christian people, non-male. same country, different world. one can assert people are already "blind", blind to the fact that those differences DO matter. Should they? I'm debating that myself, but colorblindess is an excuse to ignore the fact this country/world is not where it needs to be, and to become complacent. Pretend the differences don't exist and everything will be fine, right? Pretend the differences don't exist and I won't have to confront my own prejudices that are certainly thought if not verbally expressed, right? Pretend the differences don't exist and I won't have to feel threatened that my way of life may change, right?

In terms of your school denying your club, that was also a dumb move. How is it "discriminating" anything? It's not like your club is saying "non-mutts" can't join the group, and truth be told, if you're born in this country, you are a mutt of some sort. I can guarantee you I'm not all black. I'm definitely sure I have white ancestry and more than likely Native American ancestry. You were celebrating your ancestry, and you have every right to do it. When the celebration becomes a superiority complex, that is when there are issues. Those very superiority issues are what prevent people from having honest conversations about this, IMO.

I'm not quite sure segregation is necessarily bad; it's the superiority complexes involved that breed the problems. There is a need for these groups, and quite frankly, if there was an "all-white male" group on campus I probably wouldn't be bothered. I mean, that's what the Fortune 500 club is, and the Senate is right? Yes, I know there are women and minorities who head some businesses and who have seats in the Senate, but let's be real. The issue with segregation was that it was unfair, not that there was segregation. "Integration" isn't about "exposing" people to different races, it's about opening opportunity.

I don't want people to ignore the fact I am a black woman. What I want is all the narrowmindedness and stereotypes about being a black woman to go away. Just because you are blind to something does not mean it is not there. Being "colorblind" will not change the fact that race still matters. In fact, people are colorblind . . . and that's precisely the problem.