Thread by @GregoryMcKelvey

Saying that you do not see race is racist. Saying that you only care about what is in the inside, is actually racist. Let me illustrate for you how “colorblindness” is not actually good with a pretty simple metaphor (thread).

Imagine if you and I were planning on going to the club tonight. We were getting ready to go together at my house and in the midst of our pregaming I ask you if I could pick your outfit for the night.

You don’t want me to pick your outfit. Mostly because you know damn well that you have better style than me and also because that’s just weird. But I keep begging you. You still say no. Then I say if you don’t let me pick your outfit I won’t give you a ride.

Since you’re already stuck at my house and your options are limited here since you have no other ride, you let me pick your outfit. I come out in the finest clothes you have ever seen, Gucci down. Designer everything. So now you’re actually kinda stoked for what I picked for you.

I tell you to close your eyes and I’ll put the clothes on you. You’re pretty excited given what you saw me wearing. You open your eyes and..... rags. I dressed you in the worst clothes you could imagine. They are dirty, they stink, they are ripped. It’s literal shit.

Then I ask if you’re ready to head to the club and you are naturally like: “No. WTF, why did you dress me in rags while you’re wearing the finest clothes known to mankind?!” And I tell you... “it doesn’t matter what you wear it matters what’s on the inside, now let’s go”

You would probably be saying: “If it doesn’t matter what’s on the inside then why did you set it up this way? That’s easy for you to say!” And you would be right. Because it’s easy for me to not care about appearance when I got all the nice shit.

Same thing for white people, it’s easy for you to say you don’t see race when you are the people who’s race comes with institutional power and all the privilege in the world. Saying you don’t see race actually absolves you of guilt for benefits you didn’t earn.

Black people didn’t choose for our race to come with all the bullshit that comes with it in society. Just as you didn’t pick your outfit in this scenario. It isn’t actually nice for me to remark that I only care about what is on the inside when I dressed you in rags!

If I really didn’t care about appearance and only cared about what’s on the inside, I would let you wear my designer clothes and I would wear the rags. But I wouldn’t do that.

When you say that you don’t see color what you are saying is that you don’t see me. You don’t see the struggle that comes with being black. You don’t even see the privilege that you carry. Because all of that is uncomfortable for you.

People of color don’t have the luxury of not seeing race, because we have to face the disadvantages that come with our own race every single day.

When King said he wanted people to be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin, that doesn’t just mean judged by the individual but judged by the society.

So until black people are equal in this society, re: money, healthcare, wealth, pay, land, criminal justice outcomes, housing, opportunities, etc. We aren’t actually being judged equally by society. And your virtue signaling will still be problematic.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk that I’m sure few will read. Hope it makes sense to the dozen of you that made it through this metaphor lol.