The Benefit of Colorblindness

This cartoon is by me and Nadine Scholtes.

This cartoon was inspired by an exchange I read on Twitter (as it was called back then) and saved. Unfortunately, the account no longer exists, so I can’t link to it. But “Rebecca53109068” wrote:

Stop saying “defined by.” My race/culture is a part of who I am. It’s a part of my identity and I’m proud of it. Native Americans feel the same, and so do many other folks. Just because it means nothing to you doesn’t mean it should be dismissed or ignored.

Question: why must you pretend I’m not Black in order to treat me fairly and judge me by the content of my character?

This is not at all a new debate. Back in 2003, in Jennifer Richeson and Richard Nussbaum conducted a study, comparing white people’s reactions to being exposed to messages “advocating either a color-blind or a multicultural” view.

Relative to the multicultural perspective, exposure to the color-blind perspective generated greater automatic racial bias… , the present findings echo the vast majority of non-experimental research in education finding that multiculturalism yields more positive outcomes for intergroup relations than color-blindness.

More to the point of this cartoon, Adia Harvey Wingfield wrote:

Many Americans purport not to see color. However, their color blindness comes at a cost. By claiming that they do not see race, they also can avert their eyes from the ways in which well-meaning people engage in practices that reproduce neighborhood and school segregation, rely on “soft skills” in ways that disadvantage racial minorities in the job market, and hoard opportunities in ways that reserve access to better jobs for white peers.

Colorblindness, in a society with racism, perpetuates racism. And if there was a society with no racism, then that society wouldn’t need colorblindness. There is no context in which colorblindness makes sense.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels. They all so two people – BOB, a white guy with glasses, and JOE, a Black guy wearing a tan zip jacket – talking as they walk on a suburban sidewalk.

PANEL 1

BOB: I’ve got the solution to racism: Colorblindness!

JOE: Where we all pretend not to see race? That won’t fix things like police brutality or the racial wealth gap.

PANEL 2

Bob raises a finger to make a point.

BOB: But is the problem really nonwhites being treated badly by police and employers and banks and landlords and so on?

PANEL 3

A close up on a pleased-looking Bob.

BOB: Or is the real problem that when whites like me hear about racism we feel implicated and we resent that?

PANEL 4

Joe folds his arms, annoyed, while Bob looks very smug.

JOE: I’m guessing you’re gonna say the second one is the problem.

BOB: Not out loud.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is obsolete cartoonists’ lingo for fun but unimportant details in the art. I’m determined to bring it back. (“Gretchen, stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen, it’s NOT going to happen!”)

Panel 1: A flyer stapled to a tree shows a dog wearing a yellow bowtie, with the caption “LOST DOG.” The same dog, with a sneaky expression, peeks out from behind the tree.

Panel 2: A sun-headed and a moon-headed person are sitting at a bus stop in the background, both just reading their phones.

Panel 4: The dog from panel 1 flees as a butterfly net reaches for it.

The Benefit of Colorblindness | Patreon