Justice is More than the Absence of Brutality

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Racism: Justice is More than the Absence of Brutality

"Does race still matter?" The question by itself is a strong indication of America's disillusioned attitude towards race. It has been barely forty years since segregation— arbitrary laws that separated white children from everyone else because of the assumed superiority of whites—was abolished, and already Americans, especially white Americans, have begun to complain that we are too focused on race. Why, they plead, can't we be a color-blind society? How could that possibly happen unless we first embrace color-consciousness: the fact that people are still treated differently based on the color of their skin. Racism today is not always the same as racism in the past. Horrific incidents of overt racism still occur and hate groups still exist, but the racism of today is much more subtle than the past. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "The absence of brutality and unregenerate evil is not the presence of justice." The racism that exists today quietly benefits and privileges whites in terms of what they receive from systems and institutions already in place in America.

If you are a white, while you read, take a moment to think about what you learned in elementary school, about your professors here at State U., about the programs you watched on TV last night. Do the people you interact with daily look like you or do they look differently? Because I am white, it did not occur to me that most magazine covers had white models on them, most commercials featured whites, most of the baby dolls in the toy store were blond and blue-eyed, most of the "heroes" I learned about in school were white, and most of the authors I studied were white. I did not notice because I was not di...

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...is institution and in society do not support "them." People of color have to think about race every day because it is impossible for them not to.

American society has a long way to go before we can be a color-blind society. How can we be color blind when this country has been in existence 400 years and only 40 years have passed since people of different colors were legally given equal rights? How can we be color-blind when many high schools (and some colleges) still ignore the contributions of people of color, as well as the history of racism in this country? How can we be color blind when the faces of the poorest sections of the poorest cities are the darkest, and the faces of those with the highest positions of power are the lightest?

If you believe race does not matter in America, you are wearing a powerful and dangerous blindfold only education can remove.

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