We are “multi-, and you can fill in the hyphen-linked word. Multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious, multi-economicked, and multi-politicked. Let’s start there. And, in our being so multi-, we are constantly engaged in equality and equity arguments based on who has advantages over others in their daily living. This, I think, is an accurate description of our contemporary American society.
Equality and equity are burning issues in our nation that pre-date our founding. And they are huge today. I read that the way for our nation to be fair and equal is to be color blind and the only way to be color blind is to be completely blind to all colors. This is a perspective embraced by several Supreme Court Justices, and they give being color blind a large amount of traction in our political conversations.
Blind to color means paying no attention to color, race, or ethnicity in all aspects of life – ignoring all differences among peoples. The purest outcome of a color-blind society, they say, ensures all people are treated exactly the same. “Exactly” is an important word because “exactly” insures no variance in treatment. There is no advantage or disadvantage to a person’s color, race, or ethnicity.
Well, wake up! Those in power calling loudest for color blindness are trying the hardest to gain the greatest advantages over other people. Power tilts our world, and power is corrupted by its own existence. Power does not willingly relinquish its status or capacity to affect its world. Power also is expanding in scope while diminishing in the number and characteristics of the people who hold it. The first dictum of power is that those who hold power must commit to sustaining their hold on it. This is United States political and economic theory 101.
So, let’s talk about the coloration the powerful want us to be color blind to. Our nation is split ethnically – 57.5% white and 42.5% non-white. Race and ethnicity are not demographically the same.
Race:
- White 74.8%
- Black/African American 13.7%
- Asian 6.7%
- American Indian/Alaska Native 1.4%
- Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander .3%
- Two or more race 3.1%
Ethnicity
- White (non-Hispanic) 57.5%
- Hispanic/Latino 19.5%
- Black 12%
- Asian 6%
- Multi-racial 4.5%
Minorities make up 42% of the US population. Color blindness ignores the historical and cultural background of almost half our population. Consider what we serve as meals at home. How many recipes are ethnic based? At our July 4th picnics, the most American of celebrations, food served will represent all the cultures of our nation. Hot dogs, brats, and all the flavorings on ribs are imported variations.
Primary language at home
- English 77%
- Spanish 13.5%
- Other Indo-European languages 4%
- Asian/Pacific Island 3.5%
- Other languages 1%
Color blindness is deaf to all languages but English. Yet our commerce is not. All manuals and directions accompanying a store-bought purchase are in multiple languages, Spanish especially. Manufacturers understand and serve people speaking languages other than English who use their products.
Religious affiliations
- Christian 62%
- Non-Christian 7%
- Religiously unaffiliated 29%
Among Christians
- Evangelical Protestant 23%
- Mainline Protestant 11%
- Catholic 21%
- Other Christian 2%
Non-Christian
- Jewish 2%
- Muslim 1%
- Hindu 1%
Although our national motto is “In God We Trust,” the peoples of our nation worship a variety of Gods. Notably, almost one-third do not claim religious affiliation. This does not mean they are Godless – it says they are outside the generalizations that we are a church-going nations. Power aligns with the vocal minority who are Evangelical Protestants and America First supporters. But whose America? The powerful’s America. What about the 75% of Christians who are not evangelical nationalists?
Color blindness ignores these real data. Like the ostrich with its head buried in the earth, color blindness does not see or hear any of these real differences. The color blind know the consequences of zeroing out so much in our communities, states, and nation and do not care.
How does this work? Can we reset the game clock and backstory and become color blind?
As a child, I played outdoor games after supper. Tag, hide and seek, and kick the can were our favorites. In our games players had the possibility to stop a game at any time. In their loudest child voice, a player yelled “freeze” and all other players stopped where they were, became statue-like and did not move.
During a “freeze” we allowed players to “unstatue” to retie shoestrings, take care of toileting, get a drink or a snack, get a sweatshirt against the evening chill, or check in with their parents about how long into the evening they could play. We took care of whatever needed attending to so that we could continue playing the game. Sometimes we traded positions with another player because we each thought the other’s position was more favorable.
On some occasions, we even modified the rules of the game. The slowest afoot were allowed to be tagged twice without becoming “it.” If they were “it” they were unlikely to catch anyone but the next slowest. Those of us with poor eyesight could use a flashlight to penetrate the darkness. Home base in hide and seek was larger for girls than for boys. Every modification was intended to “even” the playing field. Interestingly, as children, we knew differences existed among us and we, in our innocence, made compensation.
A “frozen” status held until all players returned to their former or new statue posture and the freezing player yelled “unfreeze.” Then the game continued, often with new rules, as if the game had not stopped.
Ah! If only we could yell “freeze” today and stop the world in its tracks for true time-outs so we could take care of needs and correct or change positions. If only we could yell “freeze” and change or correct the way the world works. But we cannot.
Life does not have a “freeze” possibility. Changing our world from its multi-variants to a color blinded perception of people requires a God-only freeze action, like the end of days and, though it feels end-of-days-like, we are not there yet.
Public education helps us to correctly color the world.
Instead of becoming color blind, we can correctly color the world. Correctly coloring the world means to historically understand time and events from multi-sources, multi-places, and to understand them without prejudice. To say it bluntly, correctly coloring negates a partisan political urgency to whitewash our history, to literally and completely whitewash history without recognition of the world’s multi-back stories. Instead of whitewashing, correctly coloring teaches about all colors in order not to be biased by any color.
Correctly coloring means to consider how each of the multi-perspectives views and addresses a problem in the world. It means understanding the variances in food-, health-, and wealth-security. Coloring correctly knows how various political, economic, and religious systems work in the world for the benefit of the people who live in those areas and how these various systems connect or collide with each other. Correctly coloring the world means studying and learning without bias. It is an equal and equitable knowledge and understanding of a multi-world.
Correctly coloring in public education means that teachers have non-partisan academic freedom to correctly color teaching and learning. They are not pressured to influence or bias what and how they teach, and what and how students learn. Teachers are accountable for creating a correctly color-informed next generation.
Can we do this? Yes. Will we do this? It will be hard.
Our public education is becoming tilted by the powers in our federal and state governments and local governance. While crying for color blindness, the powerful decry the existence and value of color in our world.
As with all change, correctly coloring the world begins small and in small places. Classrooms and schoolhouses are small places. All education begins and ends with grass roots teaching and learning. Children learn from their daily instruction and experiences. Thus, teachers in their classrooms, studios, labs, and fields start with color correct teaching. I will use the word color or coloration to mean races, ethnicities, religious groups, and linguistic groups.
We educate all children with multi-perspectives. There is no “one” viewpoint used to learn about people or our world and national history or the colors of the world. We teach many perspectives so that children will learn there are many ways to view people, places, and events and all colors have worth.
We educate all children with understandings of multi-backgrounds. Understanding applies higher order cognition. Children know the names and characteristics of each coloration. They can objectively analyze and compare each other to the others. They can evaluate how a color lives in the world, its aspirations, its needs, and its challenges.
Teaching children is not relegated only to classrooms. We can educate all children to address each other with dignity and respect. The best way to teach this to children is to model it. I find the greatest satisfaction in the simple act of acknowledging others and being acknowledged by others. In the checkout line at Target, I smile and nod towards people I do not know. Yesterday, I saw a black man with his family two lines over and we looked at each other. I nodded toward him and he nodded toward me. We each smiled. Expressing “I see you” is easy and reciprocal.
I say hello to people on the street, at the mall, while passing, and sitting in waiting rooms. Men, women, children, my color, any color. Recognition and acknowledgement of someone else confirms that we each exist and co-exist. That acknowledgement without prejudice opens opportunities for conversation and conversation for understanding.
I wait for, aid, and help anyone of any color who can use my small assistances as we mutually navigate our communities. Courtesy is free, goodwill is easy, and doing these often is habit-forming. I cannot count the times when, after holding the door for someone, I turn to see a younger person holding the door for others. Is this causation or a coincidence of courteous people? I like causation. Goodwill can be learned.
We can educate all children to know the human story, live in the realities of our multi- nation, and create a future without the prejudice of artificial advantage.
The Big Duh!
A color-blind public education is not color blind but is color real. It teaches all the colors of nature, all the stories of our history without prejudice, and treats all children with dignity and respect.
If we want a color-blind society, we do not deny color but see all the colors so well and with such understanding that we live our colors. And we stop all attachment of advantages or disadvantages to color-relatedness. I swear, the next person who lectures me about our need to be color blind deserves a dope-slap.
I guess my goodwill towards all may know some bounds.