Ruminating on Racial Discourse ...
In recent days, instances where a lack of racial diversity, results in completely avoidable public gaffes, have made their way to DU. Fortunately, it was not DUers that made the gaffes; but I think these are perfect teachable moments regarding the Color-Blindness that DUers seem to want.
In the first instance, (http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025417343) Capt. Johnson (of Ferguson fame) is accused of flashing "gang signs", when someone discovered, and posted, pictures of him "Throw up the Yo." In the latter instance, (
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=874136) a major University created an academic unit with the acronym, "SISTA." However, in both cases, the symbolism used is/was widely recognizable among African-Americans ... and, I would argue, widely enough that it should have crossed over into the wider public ... well ... maybe not "The Yo"; but certainly the term "SISTA".
My concern regarding Color-Blindness is it promotes a "One-way Racial Awareness" (I used the phrase "One-way Racial Consciousness" in an earlier post) ... one where the dominate social group has no reason to consider that things don't necessarily (and frequently don't) mean to others, what things mean to you. And because one is Color-Blind, one can't seek out that understand because it makes clear, there are "color differences."
Had CNN (in the first instance) and the University (in the second) had a single African-American on staff, or had the cultural awareness to run things by someone familiar with African-American culture/history, these public gaffes would have been prevented.
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