On November 30th, Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" host, Trevor Noah brought in The Blaze's Tomi Lahren on his episode. It's hard to not recognize her as she is the well-known Facebook sensation for her conservative attacks against Colin Kaepernick and the Black Lives Matter movement. As expected, there were multiple topics heavily, almost heatedly, discussed between the two. There was discussion about the protests over the past couple years, Trump, the KKK, and First Amendment rights. But I am here to bring up something different regarding a comment that she expressed on the show, something that is far too ignored in this country. And it's a term that is known as "colorblind racism" that Lahren perfectly showed, and Noah noticed.
When Lahren and Noah were on the topic of her criticisms of the Black Lives Matter movement, she stated that just because she is against the movement doesn't mean she's "anti-black or racist." Instead, she claims the "she doesn't see color." Trevor Noah replied saying he doesn't believe in that statement when people say that. He states "there is nothing wrong with seeing color. It is how you treat color that is more important". And he's not wrong, because as it might seem Lahren's approach to not see color, does not indicate racial discrimination, but it absolutely does, and it's something to talk about.
If someone who doesn't know what the definition of 'colorblindness' is, it can be identified as ending discrimination by treating individuals as equally as possible without regard of race, culture, or ethnicity. Now some might ask: well, how is that considered racist? Well... there's a couple of reasons.
First, colorblindness invalidates people's identities. It's easy to immediately think negative connotations when the word "race" itself comes into the conversation. However, racial oppression is just one dimension of race. Race is also intimately tied to people's identities that signifies their culture, tradition, language, and heritage. Denying people their identities is NOT racial progress; it just goes back to this country's sordid racist history. For example, slavery depended on severing the cultural ties of Africans as they were stolen from their homeland, and therefore, "African Americans" is the term they are identified as, when all African Americans come from different groups, countries, and cultural ties.
Secondly, colorblindness invalidates racist experiences. So basically, it just pretends that the table is empty, and nothing that happened 50 years ago matters anymore. Instead, we need an environment where such stories are heard, valued, and then thoroughly addressed. Therefore, colorblindness narrows white American's understanding of the world and that is when it leads to disconnection. Going back to the 'Daily Show' Interview, Lahren expressed her disproof of Colin Kaepernick's actions, the BLM movement, and the violent protests that have been taking place for a while. She said it was disrespectful to our nation, our communities, and more importantly according to her, not the way to get messages across. But when Trevor Noah asked her:
"What is the right way for a black person to get attention in America? How should a black person bring up their grievances?" And maybe this sounds a little opinionated, but she could not give a worthy answer, she just avoided the question, and that is how colorblindness is encouraged, and continues to have this skewed view of the world. If we continue to promote this colorblind ideology, we are just following Lahren, it limits the stories that are told, and consequently, movements like Black Lives Matter are labeled as dangerous, violent, and uneducated people who are anti-police. Ali Lahren is doing, and worst of all, promoting, that we should ignore color, and those people who promote colorblindness keeps adding on the road paved with stereotypes and microaggressions towards people of color.
Muslims are "terrorists."
Blacks are "thugs and baby mamas."
Asians are "smart and shy."
The result: the colorblindness cuts you off from so much beauty in this world, seeing the uniqueness of what every individual has to offer. People of color represent beloved backgrounds, storied cultures, and varied experiences, so see color, in color. See them for them.
