The Epidemic Of Colorblindness

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February 26, 2012 Journal Entry 10: Reflection on Article Readings: Colorblindness How eye-opening it continues to be for me to read more and more about the contemporary racist epidemic of “colorblindness!” It amazes me that this ‘well-intentioned’ or even ‘politically correct’ perspective of how many of us, particularly educators, view or act towards others and our own students is only further igniting the ever-present problem of racism rather than destroying it for good. Even the word “tolerance” has become a safety net for teachers’ to use or educate with rather than a stepping stone towards educating with and towards a greater awareness of racial inequality and other serious issues. The fact that our expectations of our colored students’ remains low, even on a subconscious level, due to many educators’ stance of “colorblindness” is frightening. Scruggs (2009) states that this “failure to see and acknowledge racial differences makes it difficult to recognize the unconscious biases everyone has” (p. 2). Desai’s article states that this colorblindness many of us believe in are intertwined with “three interconnected realities: 1) the majority of teachers are white, middle class, and female; 2) our student body is racially diverse and rapidly changing demographics point to an increase in students of color; and 3) students of color are more at risk of failing in our schools. This new reality suggests that art teacher education needs to directly address racial inequality” (p. 1). This statement reiterates to me that it is almost as if white teachers, myself included, try to overcompensate for any diversity they encounter within the classroom by going ‘out of the way’ to be extra friendly or accommodating to students of color. This in turn raises the issue of whether we are blinding ourselves to how we need to and are challenging all of our students based not
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