Editor,
I was impressed how Mr. Sturken managed to fit in so many cliches du jour in his short letter. He got in “color blindness,” systemic racism and white privilege in two short paragraphs where, if I understand his accusations correctly, because I am white I don’t understand the extent of racism that exists in our country.
So I’m being accused of something simply based on the color of my skin. Isn’t that mentality exactly what we are trying to get away from? He refers to color blindness a few times, so let’s look at that issue. I’m old enough to remember when color blindness was the goal — when you looked at someone, when you hired someone, when you competed against someone, what you saw was the person and their qualities and your impressions were not influenced by their skin color.
As a country, we certainly have not reached that point but, because we fall short, that should not lessen the importance of making color blindness a goal. I suspect Mr. Sturken and others have corrupted the meaning of color blindness but I still like the original version.
Steven Howard
Redwood City
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(2) comments
Great response, Mr. Howard. Folks like Mr. Sturken don’t realize that using racism to address racism is not a winning proposition. It only perpetuates division. I prefer the original meaning of color blindness, as does virtually everyone else, too.
Terence,
You said you prefer the original meaning of color blindness. I am just curious, what is the original meaning of color blindness?
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