My understanding is this. It's where white liberals who think they're being anti-racist say, 'I don't see colour'. It comes from the right place (trying to treat all people the same) but it's problematic for several reasons.
I'll preface all this by saying race is a difficult concept to discuss. It's material yet it doesn't exist. There's as much skin tone variation within 'races' as between them. It's a 'social construct' (a relatively recent one). It's political economic and can be seen in the division of labour. It exists even if it's hard to define. I like Stuart Hall's definition of the 'floating signifier'. It's nebulous. But it does exist. The colourblind liberal pretends otherwise.
Back to the problem with colourblindness.
CW – race and racism
It erases people who live racialised as black, brown, asian, Indian, hispanic, Irish, minority, indigenous, muslim, Jewish, etc. It can't be turned off. Pretending that race doesn't exist means ignoring the aspects of a person that are directly tied to existing as a particular race. Positively and negatively.
In a negative sense, it's easy for a white liberal to (pretend to) forget it but e.g. an Indian Muslim in France can't just forget the racism they've experienced their whole life. To cut that part out of them to appease the white liberal would mean being a whole different person to who they actually are. A Jew whose relatives were killed by Nazis in WWII can't just live as if that history didn't have a formative effect. It's all right for the white liberal to pretend it didn't happen, but it's not their story to erase.
It's not just forgetting the bad things. It means ignoring culture, language, heritage, etc – those can be positives. The colourblind liberal says, "You fit in to 'my' culture because you 'sound white' or 'dress white', etc." It accepts the premise of race and racism but makes an exception for individual people who are allowed into the 'in-group'.
It's only 'white people' who have the freedom and privilege to say they don't see race. For everyone else, it's (a) part of who they are and (b) something they can't escape. Like, how is a white liberal supposed to support their black friend who can't get a job because employers see the name 'Jamal' on the application form and dismiss the applicant out of hand because they're racist. Colourblind people are starting from the premise that this type of discrimination is impossible because race can be wished away.
By pretending that race doesn't exist, the white liberal disappears the problem. We can't solve racism if white liberals bury their head in the sand and pretend it isn't a problem. (Well, actually we can – it's just going to be more difficult and when we've won, they will be crying that the victors aren't apologising for the methods.) We need to abolish the material basis of racism. We can't do that if people can pretend it doesn't exist just because it doesn't affect them.
My understanding is this. It's where white liberals who think they're being anti-racist say, 'I don't see colour'. It comes from the right place (trying to treat all people the same) but it's problematic for several reasons.
I'll preface all this by saying race is a difficult concept to discuss. It's material yet it doesn't exist. There's as much skin tone variation within 'races' as between them. It's a 'social construct' (a relatively recent one). It's political economic and can be seen in the division of labour. It exists even if it's hard to define. I like Stuart Hall's definition of the 'floating signifier'. It's nebulous. But it does exist. The colourblind liberal pretends otherwise.
Back to the problem with colourblindness.
CW – race and racism
It erases people who live racialised as black, brown, asian, Indian, hispanic, Irish, minority, indigenous, muslim, Jewish, etc. It can't be turned off. Pretending that race doesn't exist means ignoring the aspects of a person that are directly tied to existing as a particular race. Positively and negatively.
In a negative sense, it's easy for a white liberal to (pretend to) forget it but e.g. an Indian Muslim in France can't just forget the racism they've experienced their whole life. To cut that part out of them to appease the white liberal would mean being a whole different person to who they actually are. A Jew whose relatives were killed by Nazis in WWII can't just live as if that history didn't have a formative effect. It's all right for the white liberal to pretend it didn't happen, but it's not their story to erase.
It's not just forgetting the bad things. It means ignoring culture, language, heritage, etc – those can be positives. The colourblind liberal says, "You fit in to 'my' culture because you 'sound white' or 'dress white', etc." It accepts the premise of race and racism but makes an exception for individual people who are allowed into the 'in-group'.
It's only 'white people' who have the freedom and privilege to say they don't see race. For everyone else, it's (a) part of who they are and (b) something they can't escape. Like, how is a white liberal supposed to support their black friend who can't get a job because employers see the name 'Jamal' on the application form and dismiss the applicant out of hand because they're racist. Colourblind people are starting from the premise that this type of discrimination is impossible because race can be wished away.
By pretending that race doesn't exist, the white liberal disappears the problem. We can't solve racism if white liberals bury their head in the sand and pretend it isn't a problem. (Well, actually we can – it's just going to be more difficult and when we've won, they will be crying that the victors aren't apologising for the methods.) We need to abolish the material basis of racism. We can't do that if people can pretend it doesn't exist just because it doesn't affect them.