I received an email notification with a comment you made in reply to something I wrote. But I can't seem to find it here. But in that comment, you wrote in part: "There's no such thing as a color-blind society." I have to agree with that statement. I don't think there is any country on this planet where people don't "see" race. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't aspire to create a color-blind society. But irregardless of such aspirations for society as a whole, the law should be, must be color-blind. The government should not treat people differently because of their race or ethnicity.
I am sure there are a great many people that would argue that our criminal justice system proves the law isn't color-blind. Doesn't the fact that the percentage of African-Americans in prison is so disproportionate to their percentage of the U.S. population prove that? I don't think so. With the exception of laws that increase punishments for hate crimes, I am not aware of any laws that, as written, apply differently to different races or ethnic groups. The application of those laws may not be color-blind, but that is because laws are applied by human beings, and all human beings are fallible. Some human beings have truly heinous beliefs and/or are just plain evil. Some of those people work in the criminal justice system. But that doesn't mean the law shouldn't be color-blind. It means we need to do a much better job of selecting, training, and disciplining people who work in that system.
I used to teach high school social studies in the South Bronx. I told my students that race only mattered in 2 circumstances. First, it matters if it matters to you. You may feel ethnic pride, for instance. For the record, I don't feel proud to be white, and I don't think anyone should. But you might find me wearing a proud-to-be-Irish t-shirt while imbibing a green beer next March 17. The second circumstance is if someone is going to treat you differently because of your race. That is really what it all comes down to. I believe this country has come a long way over the last 160 years, but we still have a ways to go.
But even if we could magically eliminate racism from everyone's heart, that wouldn't eliminate the disparities that have resulted from slavery, Jim Crow, and other past racism. It has been argued that race-conscious affirmative action is a way to combat that disparity. But one of the problems with race-conscious affirmative action, beyond the fact that it violates the plain meaning of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, is that it did a bad job of allocating the benefits and detriments of affirmative action. As I understand it, a large percentage of the Black students that received preferences from affirmative action at elite schools were not the descendants of American slaves. Instead, many are the children of (relatively recent) African Immigrants or are the children of rich Africans. Why should they be given preferences in admission at the cost of discriminating against the children of Asian immigrants?
Dr. King dreamed of a world where his children would be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Someday, I believe that dream will be a reality. Someday, people won't care about skin color at all. I won't live to see that day. There are still a disgustingly large number of racists out there, and not all of them wear white sheets or fly the stars and bars. But the ones that keep their racist beliefs hidden hide them because it is no longer socially acceptable to express them. That is a good thing. Even if people aren't color-blind, that doesn't mean we can't expect the government to treat us as individuals and not as representatives of our various ethnicities.
I received an email notification with a comment you made in reply to something I wrote. But I can't seem to find it here. But in that comment, you wrote in part: "There's no such thing as a color-blind society." I have to agree with that statement. I don't think there is any country on this planet where people don't "see" race. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't aspire to create a color-blind society. But irregardless of such aspirations for society as a whole, the law should be, must be color-blind. The government should not treat people differently because of their race or ethnicity.
I am sure there are a great many people that would argue that our criminal justice system proves the law isn't color-blind. Doesn't the fact that the percentage of African-Americans in prison is so disproportionate to their percentage of the U.S. population prove that? I don't think so. With the exception of laws that increase punishments for hate crimes, I am not aware of any laws that, as written, apply differently to different races or ethnic groups. The application of those laws may not be color-blind, but that is because laws are applied by human beings, and all human beings are fallible. Some human beings have truly heinous beliefs and/or are just plain evil. Some of those people work in the criminal justice system. But that doesn't mean the law shouldn't be color-blind. It means we need to do a much better job of selecting, training, and disciplining people who work in that system.
I used to teach high school social studies in the South Bronx. I told my students that race only mattered in 2 circumstances. First, it matters if it matters to you. You may feel ethnic pride, for instance. For the record, I don't feel proud to be white, and I don't think anyone should. But you might find me wearing a proud-to-be-Irish t-shirt while imbibing a green beer next March 17. The second circumstance is if someone is going to treat you differently because of your race. That is really what it all comes down to. I believe this country has come a long way over the last 160 years, but we still have a ways to go.
But even if we could magically eliminate racism from everyone's heart, that wouldn't eliminate the disparities that have resulted from slavery, Jim Crow, and other past racism. It has been argued that race-conscious affirmative action is a way to combat that disparity. But one of the problems with race-conscious affirmative action, beyond the fact that it violates the plain meaning of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, is that it did a bad job of allocating the benefits and detriments of affirmative action. As I understand it, a large percentage of the Black students that received preferences from affirmative action at elite schools were not the descendants of American slaves. Instead, many are the children of (relatively recent) African Immigrants or are the children of rich Africans. Why should they be given preferences in admission at the cost of discriminating against the children of Asian immigrants?
Dr. King dreamed of a world where his children would be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Someday, I believe that dream will be a reality. Someday, people won't care about skin color at all. I won't live to see that day. There are still a disgustingly large number of racists out there, and not all of them wear white sheets or fly the stars and bars. But the ones that keep their racist beliefs hidden hide them because it is no longer socially acceptable to express them. That is a good thing. Even if people aren't color-blind, that doesn't mean we can't expect the government to treat us as individuals and not as representatives of our various ethnicities.