I appreciate when people leave comments and engage with the subject that has been brought to the table (whether you agree with what I have to say, or not).
Kudos for speaking from the heart...
* * *
I think the notion of 'not seeing skin color' comes from a couple of places, one is as you are suggesting-an inherent part of unexplored/unacknowledged racism, the other comes from people wanting to come from a place of respecting and valuing everyone regardless of the color of skin.
However, I personally feel that if people aren't noticing that my skin is a bit darker than theirs perhaps, then they are not really seeing me for who I am and that doesn't feel good or respectful. Racism has become such an ugly word in our society that as people we become afraid to talk about it.
Let's just acknowledge that we live in a world where skin color comes with a multitude of assumptions/biases and lets look at our assumptions and how we enact those and then perpetuate this thing we call 'racism', and then do as you are suggesting-take some responsibility for changing this.
-Cathy Baylis
[Community worker, painter, healer, aboriginal woman, grandmother]
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A few weeks back I had a bizarre run-in with someone -- one that very nearly turned violent -- that made me think of this post, and I was going to reply, if only to ramble and maybe even vent.
Unfortunately, this is another subject on which I'm often afraid to speak up for fear of the slightest thing being misinterpreted, especially in light of the article at hand.
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