Colorblindness: Dangerous Delusions of Post-Racial America

           Early January 2014 introduced the social justice community of Twitter to GreenLiberation, an environmentalist who claimed greenness as her race, rejecting race altogether. In 2005, Morgan Freeman claimed that the solution to racism was to “stop talking about it.” One would be hesitant to describe these two comments as racist, because most people seem to define racism simply as a dislike of a person based on skin color. Gloria Yamato defines four forms of racism: “aware/blatant racism, aware/covert racism, unaware/unintentional racism, and unaware/self-righteous racism.” She challenges the idea that racism is only personal, describing social and institutional racism embedded in society. She would likely classify GreenLiberation an unaware/unintentional racist, though further tweets reveal self-righteousness. Freeman would be told he has class privilege that shields him from everyday racism. Racism, Yamato says, can be internalized, which explains why many people of color like CNN’s Don Lemon employ respectability politics, the idea that if only black people would act a certain way, they would experience no racism. This is the most dangerous manifestation of ‘colorblindness,’ because when most Americans believe we are post-racial or employ respectability politics, loud music or a hoodie is justification for murder. Racial implications of Stand Your Ground laws and voter ID laws are ignored.
            Colorblindness and post-racial thinking lead to respectability politics, then victim blaming. Victims are young black men, branded with hypermasculinity/violence. Black women experience unique misogyny, called misogynoir. There’s the stereotype of black female hypersexuality, and the sexualization of young black girls, evidenced by the hashtag #FastTailedGirls. One of its creators, Mikki Kendall, was called “divisive” by the feminist community because she spoke out when women of color were ignored by mainstream feminists. Since there is no blanket ‘female experience,’ there can be no uniform feminism. Feminists must unite against racism, classism, homophobia/transphobia, all oppression.

YES: "Saying you're colorblind only means you're privileged enough to ignore racism."

This became a pretty funny meme, but colorblindness is truly dangerous.

  

Racism certainly still exists, and here we see it blended with classism

Yamato, Gloria. "Something About the Subject Makes It Hard to Name." Race, Class, and Gender: An          Anthology. By Margaret L. Andersen and Patricia Hill Collins. 5th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1995. 99-103. Print.

Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists and Conservatives: Ideological Cousins

  The term 'radical' tends to make people think “opposite of conservative,” especially with the generally pro-choice and pro-homosexual stance of radical feminists. But TERFS, Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists, share with conservatives a view called biological essentialism. They believe that gender assigned at birth is unchangeable, that a woman is reducible to parts. Apparently petty infighting between feminists is really a battle for transgender people's basic rights, undermined by radical feminists, who affect legislation. As Tina Vasquez points out in her Bitch Media article, "It's Time to End the Long History of Feminism Failing Transgender Women," transphobic feminists occupy influential positions as lawyers or professors. Cathy Brennan is the most well-known "TERF.” When someone shows disapproval of her politics, she makes an attempt to showcase them on her websites, like Gender Identity Watch, or dox (out) them to their family or employer, misgendering them throughout. She holds the unfounded view that transgender individuals are actually perpetrators of violence in restrooms or that violent cisgender men scheme to invade female spaces through drag. 

 In the book Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein, an entire chapter is devoted to Gender Defenders, those defenders of the current gender system. She suggests that even if transwomen do bring male privilege into women's spaces, the issue is the male privilege, not the transgender community. 

  Though they aim to abolish gender, TERFS cling to the idea that a penis equals man, which equals oppression. TERFS don’t see the irony in wanting to eliminate society’s rules about their bodies (like wearing makeup) but adamantly defend discrimination based on trans* bodies. They only recognize "women born women," a nonsensical identifier, since infants are essentially genderless before socialization, and since all women have different gender experiences anyway. Smashing the patriarchy involves divorcing biological essentialism and regarding gender as an identity.

Bornstein, Kate. "Gender Terror, Gender Rage." Gender Outlaw. S.l.: Vintage, 1994. 72-85. Print.
Vasquez, Tina. "It's Time to End the Long History of Feminism Failing Transgender Women." Bitch Magazine. Bitch Media, 17 Feb. 2014. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.