The Myth of a color blind society
 
 
I don’t want colorblind friends.
Really, I don’t. Color blind means that you choose to ignore the atrocities perpetuated against any race. It means you pretend that they don’t exist.
 
I want friends who sees that White boy on the bus being harassed by a bunch of Black kids and steps in to stop the pack mentality attack before it escalates. I want friends who sees the wrongness in a immigration themed frat party and won’t laugh it off as a mean joke on public while telling their Latino friends that it was wrong in private. I don’t want friends who see in social media that the back race is being judged by the stupid internet memes and painful internet sensations like Travonying, and laugh cause they think its funny and not harming anyone. That is what being color blind gets you.
 
I am not saying that we should all be militant and spend every waking moment on the look out for injustice so we can pull out the tar and feathers at a moment’s notice. No, I am not saying that we should look into every action that others take so spot racial intolerance and rally the masses around it while shaming the intolerant one with jeers and curses of pain and shame. What I am saying is that to turn a blind eye to things can be dangerous.
 
I want my friends to be aware of what is going on around them. I want them to feel safe to express their agreement or opposition to a situation freely. I want them to know what the real world is like, not hide behind the fake pronouncements that racism is over because we have a Black president and I have never seen anything like that around me. If you have never faced any of the prejudiced that America is ripe with, then I want to live where you are. But the sad state of affairs is that real life is rarely like that.
 
WE are human beings and it I in our nature to covet, to fear, to gather together in groups that are like, and to unfortunately harm eachother when the fear and misunderstanding gets too great. Its sad but I see it all the time. Have you ever seen a group of traditional Golden Age science fiction readers take on the younger generation who feels vampires might be the god guys? Oh man, can the intellectual kickboxing take on new dizzying and highbrow heights. But that is human nature. What we choose to do with what we observe is a personal choice.
 
And that being said, I don’t want colorblind friends. I want friends who will acknowledge our differences and still be friends despite the fact that we are not the same. I want friends who are observant who will step in and help that kid on the bus, who will tell the planners of all these “insensitive” theme parties to stop before the lemming effect take over and everyone thinks it’s a good idea to wear black-face and sombreros, serve tacos and get blasted in tequila while they dance under an imaginary boarder crossing. I want friends who will tell those idiots who thought Trvoning was so funny to stop that shit, that a young man’s life was lost before he even had a chance to do anything with that life. I want friends who will not give into the complicity of this so called colorblind society, but will see reality for what it is and revel in our differences as well as our sameness.
 
So, no. I don’t want colorblind friends. I want real friends who offer their friendships with nothing held back. To me, that will be the one action that will defiantly affect a change for the better and leave a better example for those who will live on this planet long after we are gone.