Color-Blindness vs. Race Matters: Pre-School Education and the Need for a Communal Vision

Multicultural Education, Summer 2004 by Hein, Christina Judith

Race Matters

When she received the Academy Award for Best Actress on March 24, 2002, African American actress Halle Berry found herself unable to speak calmly for minutes as she was shaken with tears. "Tonight, a window has been opened," she stated as she saw herself receiving the Oscar for "every nameless woman of color" who had been denied the privileges and honors of a white-dominated society. She is the first African American actress to have received the award in its 76-year history.

If race did not matter, if color made no difference, as is reassuringly repeated ever so often in the different public, political, and academic discourses of the day, what would account for Berry's excitement and the standing ovations that followed her speech?

The Myth of Color-Blindness

I discern two trends ruling with many of the teachers, intellectuals, and citizens of the United States. One is the color-blind-myth that Williams (1997) cites in her essay, 'The Emperor's New Clothes": "I don't think about color, therefore your problems don't exist," is the phrase that she attributes to this "school of idealism" (p.4).

The other is the notion of race as a social construct. Race is not inscribed in a gene, and therefore it is not natural but the product of human communal perception. What many half-hearted constructionists seem to forget over this valuable approach, however, is that thinking cannot stop there. Race matters exactly because it is socially constructed.

But how can the attempts at color-blindness be reconciled, in a socio-political reality, with the understanding that here and now race is an influential factor? In the following, I will interrogate the tension that arises between these two perceptions. I will try to position my voice in the interstitial spaces between commonly-accepted concepts and binaries and come up with an alternative perspective.

People Are Different

Real color-blindness, I would argue, is something that will not be achieved. For one thing, race is so much more than just the color of a person's skin. Race intersects with ethnicity, with culture, with histories. It cannot be the aim, I believe, to strive for complete annihilation of these valuable differences that testify to the beautiful and rich diversity of human life.

It cannot be the aim either to work towards a future where every individual is treated the same, regardless of their race, ethnicity, class, sex, gender, ability, age. People are different and the different layers of their identities ask for different kinds of responses in a social framework with certain norms and values.1

Nobody, in my vision of a global future, should be made to feel bad because of who they are. Nor should they be privileged or denied respect. Opportunities, where they are institutionalized and regulated, should be equally accessible and discourses that stereotypically invest members of a certain racial group with certain characteristics need to be dismantled and reshaped.

It will not be possible, however, by means of any kind of education or any kind of social or political system to prevent individual people from disliking, hating, abusing, or otherwise mistreating others. Humans remain humans with all their frailties and delusions, and this needs to be accepted as a basis for the creation of any usable vision for the future.

Is Color-Blindness Futile?

Is the color-blind-approach, with its different avatars in the contexts of teaching and education as well as in the general public sphere, completely futile, then? While Williams acknowledges that it is certainly Veil-meaning" (p. 1), I would like to take a step further and also value the basic assumptions that I can see shimmer through.

The task of forming society, of shaping the face of the world, in a gradual process of giving up and taking on power and responsibilities, is bestowed upon the children. If teachers, parents, and the better part of their environment succeed in making them appreciate the values of tolerance, respect, and love, socio-political conditions that many of us are still dreading today might become obsolete and eventually dissolve in their hands.

Teaching, however, still needs to be grounded in the realities of the day; it needs to be culturally responsive.2 Cultures are complex, and they do not only comprise positive elements. They have histories of war, conflict, repression, and a responsible teacher has to take these elements into account, too.

In this regard, I agree with Williams's assessment: "Race matters are resented and repressed in much the same way as matters of sex and scandal," she observes (p.8). Even further, the 'blindness' towards issues of race and a related muted helplessness to address them reveal structural similarities to the general conduct in a family affected by the dark secret of child abuse. The tacit, oftentimes unconscious agreement is to ignore the crime, to act as though nothing had happened; clearly, this inability to speak up openly and talk prevents all members involved from amending the wrongs and healing the wounds.