Not Ignorant, Adamant
I’m on record as thinking that colorblindness, even willful colorblindness, is a good thing, and as being baffled by people who want to sort their porn by the race of the performers. So you can imagine my distaste upon seeing Audacia Ray — a smart political sort with whom I’m often in agreement on matters of porn — characterize my commitment to colorblindness as a sort of liberal ignorance.
Hint: It’s not “ignorance” to reject racial classifications as a basis for your worldview, and it’s certainly not liberal in a world where affirmative action is an icon of liberal political correctness. If you can’t see a person without having a racial classification for them pop into your head, you’re part of the problem. Worse yet, every time anybody slaps racial tags or identifiers on anybody else, this whole sordid business of “race” is reinforced and strengthened. I don’t refuse to participate in that out of ignorance, I refuse to participate in it because I’m adamantly convinced it’s a bad business.
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First things first. Huzah for the comments being back on. Freedom and speech go together like…well…if people on this site don’t know what goes together by now you’re on the wrong site!
I have to say that I don’t support that view. Before everybody starts pointing a finger at me and getting ready to say RACISM! hear me out. I used to think that the colorblindness or melting pot ideals were good, too. Then I started studying under people like Danny Romero, Sonia Sanchez and Herb Simons. They taught me that the melting bot idea isn’t evil, but it can erode culture. That colorblindness isn’t vital as seeing all of the colors and accepting them for what they are.
I don’t agree with racial separatism (e.g., We don’t use that store. It’s run by Asians.) because too much same-ness breeds in weakness. It closes off cultures from each other, just like nationalism, and that just makes more problems.
Damn it, sometimes I want to flirt with a Latina because she’s a Latina. I want to hear the accent and enjoy the mannerisms she has. Sometimes I love having sex with Black women because of their race, not in spite of it, and the things that they bring to my bed that no other woman does. Sometimes I want to masturbate to the thought of a Caucasian girl because of that special pink their nipples can be. And I’ve had a thing for Asians for years.
It doesn’t mean that I have to treat them any less like people because they are different races. Sure, I have my favorites and I’m not alone. I had one friend who would do anything for Chinese men with English accents. That’s just like saying you like one type of food over another. It’s just personal choice. Not racism.
My take: Enjoy people for what they are. We’re all on this world together.
Greg
Wow, this feels like it all happened a long time ago. Because it did!
I’ve been educated somewhat since those old days, and in particular I now understand that white people adamantly insisting on “color blindness” can be weaponized to disguise or deny or promote all kinds of racism. I don’t think that’s what I was doing back in 2006, but that dude was another person and sometimes I don’t recognize him. I still think racializing things that don’t need to be racialized is a bad idea, but I’m a lot more open than I was back then to the suggestion that a blithering white dude may not have a great perspective on what’s needful.