Category: Color Blindness

Every country has some rules and legislation that provides its citizens with certain security and regulations that guarantee a normal life. However, the real situation appears to be quite the opposite from what should the government provide its population with.

In this respect, we can see cases of discrimination though it is claimed to have been fought in the same time when Martin Luther King delivered his speech about the necessity of being more tolerant and patient and not treating people of other races as minorities. The history made the United States of America a multinational state where different languages and religious beliefs are brought from all over the world to contribute to the overall image of the country and enrich its culture.

Time passed and people were still coming to the United States to find some appropriate conditions for their families, education for their children, and more advantageous job opportunities. However, the real situation happened to be not as bright and prosperous as people believed.

Status of Minorities

The Civil Rights Act was aimed at outlawing racial discrimination which still persists in the form of racial inequality.

Education

Many people that live in the United States of America experience racial inequality regardless of the claims that this phenomenon was claimed to have been removed from the theory and practice. However, many people face difficulties related to their housing opportunities and educational problems. This does not mean that children of immigrants do not want to receive education – racial discrimination results in much more complicated issues such as lack of educational institutions on the territory of the neighborhoods inhabited by immigrants. Is not this inequality?

I believe that this can be considered the most vivid example of racial inequality when people are doomed to live in neighborhoods chosen for them on the bases of racial discrimination principles. As reported in the documentary series Unnatural Causes, the rate of uneducated children that experience violence or become witnesses of violence in the street is very high due to the neighborhood and inability of authorities to provide all people with appropriate living conditions making no exceptions.

Children are not educated, they lack self-esteem and self-confidence, and they have no plans for future. As experts explain about such children, they make plans concerning what to wear for their funerals instead of thinking about their graduation and more perspective outcomes (“Unnatural Causes” n.p.).

In other words, there is no chance for these children to become good loving parents for their own children as the rate of violence and other external factors are not encouraging at all; hence, people do not make plans to be ready for losses. The situation in society would not permit them to realize their plans to any degree.

Health

Health is one of the most burning issues of the contemporary society. The global community makes attempts to consolidate people all over the world and fight the danger of fatal illnesses and viruses. However, the cases that take place in the racially marked neighborhoods of the united states of American such as “Richmond, California, a predominantly Black city in the San Francisco Bay Area” (“Unnatural Causes” n.p.) demonstrate lack of attempts to improve the health of the population.

Besides, it is unclear whether the authorities do nothing with the health of the population due to the race inequality or they have simply failed to provide certain areas with adequate health care services. In this respect, health policies and programs aimed at improvement of health care services provided to the population of another race and ethnicity than white non-Hispanics seem to have failed.

As reported in the documentary series Unnatural Causes, “Segregation and lack of access to jobs, nutritious foods, and safe, affordable housing” (n.p.) can be considered the major factor that contribute negatively to the overall situation with the health of people including residents that have been living in inappropriate neighborhoods for years and even decades and new-comers who experience the pressure of this negative environment.

Health of these people reduces their lives. The major reason for shorter life period of people from disadvantaged neighborhoods is the conditions that reduce their lives. People think about the lack of job opportunities, inappropriate health care services, and lack of educational institutions which causes constant stress and worsens their health.

Sociocultural factors

Though sociocultural issues can be considered the main aspect of the cultural diversity that can be used for benefit of the society and organizations, people often fail to understand this concept adequately and treat it in the same way they treat their own cultural cues. In this respect, sometimes people lack tolerance and patience to learn differences and comprehend the relations between cultural cues typical of one ethnic group and their actions in a certain setting.

When we do not understand something, we try either to learn it better to know how to treat it. At the same time, people may fail to express sufficient understanding; they can express animosity instead.

The situation in disadvantaged neighborhoods is difficult to change though people can make efforts such as performed by the people in the High Point in West Seattle where “Community members, local government and developers took a radical approach in rebuilding this neighborhood – using federal funding to create a mixed-income community with health as its focus” (“Unnatural Causes” n.p.).

In this respect, race matters only for those who got used to stereotypes and biases instead of establishment of new unbiased relations with other community members.

So, the definition of racism is instructive because it marks people of other colors of skin than white and other ethnicities than non-Hispanic as those considered victims of this phenomenon in society. However, any expression of preference or discrimination can be considered racism in contemporary society due to multiculturalism spread all over the globe.

Colorblindness in California

Though California can be considered one of the most multicultural areas on the territory of the United States of America, it can also be treated as the place where people suffer from open discrimination regardless of political claims about tolerance and integrity.

Civil rights

People are discriminated due to their racial belonging in all parts of the world. This can be considered one of the burning issues of contemporary society with regard to a number of factors that contribute to the overall situation in every separate state and the global community in general.

The book Racial Propositions: Ballot Initiatives and the Making of Postwar California written by Daniel Martinez HoSang helps people to understand the problem of racial inequality to the extent of its essence because authorities try to make things look better than they appear to be in the real life. In this respect, people in California are treated with regard to their race taking into account numerous acts, policies, and programs aimed at development of clear and unbiased social relations.

All attempts to cover or even reduce the open demonstrations of discrimination were made in order to lull the vigilance of active opponents and make the country more attractive for immigrants who did not even think about possibility of being discriminated in one of the most democratic countries in the world. HoSang in his book about the history of race in California describes speeches and public claims made to reduce the opposition:

Bowron’s pronouncement echoed the calls of dozens of other civic unity, “human relations,” and “fair play” organizations across the state and around the country during this period; Los Angeles alone was home to twelve such organizations or coalitions by 1944. (ch. 1)

Every such pronouncement reduced the efforts of opposition and made people believe that everything would become better than it was and discrimination would not exist anymore. Though Brown has indicated that “we have no master race” (HoSang ch.1), there are still numerous instances of discrimination and racial inequality in California as well as all over the world.

Colorblindness

Such notions as colorblindness were supposed to make people free from discrimination and society free from biases and racial inequality. However, some people consider this to be one of the major obstacles on the way to multicultural society with specific needs and traditions. In this respect, the “…key signifiers [such as] rights, freedom, opportunity, progress, etc….” (HoSang ch.1) can be considered the greatest concepts of liberalism while people failed to implement those theoretical issues into practice.

Often people fail to perform the commitments they have toward their families and communities; the same happens when politicians say certain things and promise to do something whereas the real situation shows their real actions and intentions that stand behind those actions.

Though “Murphy warned of the ‘exaltation of any race, or nationality as superior to all others’,” (HoSang ch.1), people persist to do things claimed to be negative and inappropriate. This means that there is no color blindness in California as well as in every other area of the earth due to certain peculiar features of human being exercised toward each other.

Every person is free to choose what attitude to express toward other people regardless of their being opponents or members of the same community. This can be considered one of the drawbacks of the liberalism and its major keys.

With regard to all facts mentioned above it is necessary to ask if people are ready to enjoy the freedoms of liberalism that is supposed to ensure freedom though should not restrict people in their desires and beliefs. It is natural that some people can experience biases against representatives of other ethnic groups though this should not be the reason to deprive them of their democratic freedom to choose whom to make friends with.

Real motives of political decisions

The racial hierarchy of people in California is the main issue that should be solved. In spite of positive connotations of the language of the latest propositions made concerning the racial inequality policies, these acts are aimed at development and support of already flourishing racial discrimination typical of this area. Racial liberalism can be treated as an attempt to regulate the situation that has become obvious in California.

Though the concept of racial blindness is urgent for the population of California that suffers from disadvantaged position, the policies are aimed at stronger restriction of rights and freedoms of people so that they could not oppose the conditions and limitations imposed o them by authorities.

Thus, white supremacy can be still observed in terms of hierarchy of races in California. Every claim made against the racial inequality that is supposed to defend the rights of discriminated people can be potentially aimed at bringing racially supreme people to the top.

Conclusion

People all over the world suffer from hunger and diseases whereas the problem of discrimination that should have been solved many years ago is still urgent for population of one of the most liberal countries of the globe. In this respect, people claim that the racial inequality should be reduced and eliminated from the community. However, the actual claims made by politicians and other representatives of political and social power prove to be aimed at changing the racial hierarchy in California in negative sense.

Every person can become color blind in terms of racial biases and discrimination though people cannot be deprived of their liberal powers given to them by political regime of democracy that is known for freedoms and rights imposed on population. The categories of people that have to live in disadvantaged neighborhoods suffer from the liberties and freedoms because they do not have sufficient resources and power to fight the situation; so, their children have to breathe toxic air and go to schools full of violence.

Works Cited

Hosang, Daniel. Racial Propositions: Ballot Initiatives and the Making of Postwar California. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2010.

“Unnatural Causes.” California Newsreel, 2008. Web. http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/episode_descriptions.php?page=5

There is much talk about the problem of racial discrimination. With the election of Barack Obama as the President of the United States, Americans were confident that the racial problem had been fully considered. The main focus of the book Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity by Tim Wise (2010) is the existence of racial problems in the world. Tim Wise (2010), one of the best speakers in the United States of America, says that even though the President states on the colorblindness society and he is sure that racism is combated and there is no racial discrimination in the country, it still exists. In other words, people believed that the election of Barack Obama, the representative of the Afro-American nation, would solve a number of problems connected with racial inequality. In reality, the problem remains unsolved and, according to Tim Wise (2010), no one even tries to solve it as the authorities believe that the problem does not exist.

Obama told the delegates in one of his speeches that, “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America; there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America; there is the United States of America” (Obama in Anderson, 2008, para. 3). The problem started in the book by Tim Wise (2010) is essential as people should know that racism takes place and the information about the post-racial period is ungrounded. Wise (2010) also believes that racism is institutionalized in the United States of America and no one pays much attention to the problem because it is impossible to do anything within the bounds of current policies. The author’s opinion is persuasive. It is possible to understand his position while reading the book. The examples Tim Wise (2010) highlights are really catching and make people deep in thought.

Discussion

To confirm the idea that racism still exists and the information about the post-racial era is ungrounded, the author uses a number of real examples and supports those with obvious facts. The first point that should be discussed is the idea that

Post-racial liberalism is inadequate for remedying persistent racial inequities. Because those inequities are themselves too often the result of racial discrimination and race-specific injuries perpetrated by whites against people of color – and not, as post-racial liberalism insists, the result of race-neutral economic or cultural factors – applying “universal” solutions to said inequities will likely fail to fully ameliorate them (Wise, 2010, p. 17).

The author supports his idea by means of examples from the life of American society. The idea of post-racial liberalism is not something new. The notion has been used long before, but Obama tries to insist that post-racial liberalism is what people can experience now. Dwelling upon the universal policies directed at people of color and aimed at helping those in the following spheres of human life, health care, job search, and education, the President remains blind. All those attempts are unsuccessful due to a number of reasons. The social perception of the policies in the society differs much from the perception of those by the President. According to Wise (2010), the President believes that the problem is considered. He blindly believes that the absence of visual and direct aggression is the main example of problem elimination.

The President is sure that the problem of racial discrimination is solved and the society lives in a post-racial liberal era with color blinded considerations. But he fails to understand that the prejudices that live in society have not been removed yet. On the one hand, the President tries to pay much attention to the problem by creating different policies which deal with universality. On the other hand, Obama is sure that the problem has been solved when he had been elected as the 44^th President of the United States of America. He believes that his election solved the problem of racial discrimination and that people became free from racial prejudices.

Obama wants to be neutral to the problem of racism in the country. Using the term post-racial liberalism and the idea that it was he who made education and health care more affordable for all people including those of color, the President tries to close the gaps that exist in the society between people of different races. The problem exists not because Obama does not want to combat it, but because he sincerely believes that there is no problem at all. The post-racial liberalism presupposes the elimination of iniquity in education, income, and health that is not the real state in the society. The President is also wrong about the race-neutral consideration in society. They do not solve the problem, but, they can make it worse (Wise, 2010).

Tim Wise (2010) states that “colorblindness not only fails the remedy discrimination and racial inequity, but it can also actually make both problems worth” (Wise, 2010, p. 18) because the “encouraging individuals and institutions to downplay the role of race and racism in the lives of the public will only impede the ability to respond to the needs of that public” (Wise, 2010, p. 20). To support the idea, Tim Wise (2010) says that “to be colorblind… is not to think about such things” (p. 138). But in reality, everything is different. The situation is getting worse due to the fact that colorblindness politics can harmfully affect those who support this idea. This may cause a violation. The “intensification of racial thinking as a result of colorblindness” (Wise, 2010, p. 136) can result in the increase of racially biased thinking. When one race is placed higher than another by means of the policies which are aimed at protecting Afro-Americans, society can get frustrated.

Raising the problem of racial discrimination and the increase of universal policies makes some people think that people of color are praised more. The ideology appears that “white people [are] the new oppressed minority” (p. 148). Such considerations may create new tension in the society that will arouse in a new confrontation of white and color races.

The problem that is not discussed is not solved. Moreover, society becomes confident that there is no problem at all. Wise (2010) stresses that the denial of the problem does not eliminate it, the versa effect is observed. The author states that the current problem is in the “see no evil” (Wise, 2010, p. 191) approach as most people do not face the reality. How can society combat a problem without having identified it? This is a rhetoric question Wise (2010) asks.

The third example that the racism flourishes and that the problem is unsolvable in modern conditions, according to Tim Wise (2010), is that the wrong priorities are stressed. “If certain people face obstacles not faced by others – such as race-based discrimination – then universal programs of general uplift cannot possibly serve as the palliative for their condition” (p. 20).

Tim Wise (2010) asks a rhetorical question about how “we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes” (p. 46). White society may never understand the people of color, their values and world perception. Living in one and the same society, they should have the same hopes, but it is impossible. Wise (2010) states there is no need to make all people equal. There is no necessity to unite those under the same beliefs and considerations. Different people have absolutely different history and their hopes may also vary, but what the President and his team should do is to create policies that would apply the idea of the equal treatment of all people, without considering their races.

Wise (2010) offers the following example, if a child of color and a white one live in different areas, go to different schools and are treated differently, they may never understand each other. The problem may never be solved by means of treating different races similarly. White people do not know what racial discrimination is, they cannot understand how it feels when one is treated according to his/her color of skin. That is why the idea of universality will never work. The author offers the policy of illuminated individualism. Its main idea is the stress on people as on the inner world of individualities, not on the color of their skin. All people should be treated according to their inner qualities, without lightening other factors.

Conclusion

Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity by Tim Wise (2010) is one of the most powerful books I have ever read. It is crucial to restate that the main idea of the book: the existence of racial problems and feeble attempts to solve them. But the results do not make any sense. It should be reminded that according to the author’s opinion the President makes all possible to apply the idea to the society that the problem has already been solved and there is nothing to worry about. The universal policies the President applies to the society do not make any good, vice versa, they create additional obstacles on the way to colorblindness society.

The book is very informative. I knew nothing about the modern situation in the country and about the racial prejudices that still exist. Wise (2010) explains many processes and consequences which I have not understood before. The consideration of the problem from a new perspective pushed me to check the problem in detail and analyze the actions that occur in society from a critical perspective. Using the ideas I read in the book, I am going to revalue my personal convictions about the racial situation in society and I am sure that I will be able to make wise conclusions after thorough research and deep thinking. The persuasive arguments and obvious examples Tim Wise (2010) provides in his book do not leave any chance to disagree with him.

Reference List

1. Anderson, S. J. (2008). Barack Obama: A meteoric rise. CNN Politics.com. Web.
2. Wise, T. (2010). Colorblind: The rise of post-racial politics and the retreat from racial equity. San Francisco: City Lights Publishers.