I was reading a thread in a forum, and one of the commenters said “I don’t see color”, with the intention of conveying that race shouldn’t matter. Honestly, I thought this was an admirable sentiment, but soon learned how problematic this phrase is. I spent some time reading about the reasons why, and I now consider myself a bit more educated than I was a little while ago. I’m linking the articles below:
- What I Hear When Someone Says “I Don’t See Color” at The Everygirl
- I Don’t See Color by Sam Louie MA, LMHC, S-PSB
- When White People Say They ‘Don’t See Color’ by Jeremy Helligar
- Being “Color Blind” Doesn’t Make You Not Racist—In Fact, It Can Mean the Opposite by Samantha Vincenty
After 51-years of life, I’m still figuring out what it means to be mixed/multiple-ethnicity. It’s complicated, but fascinating, and surprisingly challenging to find information or groups that discuss mixed-Asian ethnicity (Asian-Asian, not Asian-Caucasian, Asian-Black, etc.).
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On a side note, the original commenter’s reaction to the links to the articles was defensive and hostile, instantly devolving into name-calling and personal attacks. Which reminds me of the saying, “when you resort to ad hominem attacks, you’ve already lost”, as in the entertaining feud between James Altucher and Jerry Seinfeld.
The “color-blind” concept was something I experienced while living in France: while it’s a possible way to neutralize, even deter, potential racism, it can inadvertently create a hidden sense of racism, which ends up not solving the original problem. It was insightful for me to experience, especially coming from such a racially-charged country as the US.
I’m not of mixed Asian-Asian descent, but I do agree with you that not many scholarly texts discuss this: the way I see it, being someone of mixed Asian-Asian descent would be just as conflicted as being one of Asian-Caucasian or Asian-black races. I think it’s because, from a Western perspective, it’s hard to distinguish among the different Asian cultures, to the point that it’s assumed that they’re all homogeneous (which in fact isn’t true). It’ll be interesting to learn more about this phenomenon, as research seems to be scant regarding this topic due to a limited pool of participants/people who actually have inter-Asian/Asian marriages. Will have to see some day!