A Color-Blind Case

Review Essay: Group 3

This paper is a review of the topic "Is the Emphasis on a Color-Blind Society an Answer to Racism and Inequality." The two that are presenting this topic for discussion are Emily Ernst, and Alysia Berns. The format for this review paper is a quick summary of the yes and the no side, and then for the conclusion I will give my own opinion in a short and sweet paragraph.

Ward Connerly is on the side of supporting this idea. His overall idea is that America needs to become colorblind to race, he said on page 81 that when "Julia Roberts and Benjamin Bratt started to date that no one really cared" (Connerly). So if love has become colorblind then why can't it fulfill the promise that it made so long ago with equal justice before the law and for the United States as a nation to renounce racial classifications? Something that he also tired to implement was the Racial Privacy Initiative (RPI). This would take away all those racial classifications that you have to check off on a packet or application. He also says that this is a start to a nation becoming one, and that it will free us from the identification politics and make us not feel so "boxed in."

Then on the counter side of that Eduardo Bonilla-Silva says no instead of yes to this topic. I will start with something interesting that he said on the last page of his argument "I urge a personal and political movement away from claiming to be raciest to antiracist" (Silva, page 92). He also starts by backing up his claim of being "antiracist" in that it means you understand racial matters, and that you willingly know that they are affected materially and ideologically. Another main point from his section is that he doesn't want the idea of a racist approach but in fact he wants to see how many white people support the idea to preserve racial inequality rather than labeling people of a different race as either good or bad.

On my own personal opinion after reading both sides of the argument, I have to agree with what Ward is saying. I think it is so dumb that no matter what we do or have to fill out, we have to check a box to identify what race we are. I think it is the biggest waste of time for everyone, why do we have to classify ourselves. Also getting the government to get out of identifying individuals. So my overall support is with Ward Connerly.