Dear White Deaf People, Let’s Talk About Color-Blind Racism in the Age of Colorblindness
Kyle Morris’ ASL Translation of this article can be found here.
Last semester, I took a course called Critical Race Theory. This course introduced me to analyzing the dominant racial ideology currently known as color-blind racism in the Age of Colorblindness. The first tenet of Critical Race Theory is that “racism is ordinary, not aberrational, is permanent in society.” Racism never died, only evolved into a more sophisticated form, known as color-blinded racism that ensures whiteness remains unchallenged in the Age of Colorblindness.
During this course of Critical Race theory, I realized that I published several articles that only discuss the “old-fashioned” racism regime commonly known as Jim Crow racism in my Deaf Mecca, and Race Conversation in Deaf Communities Is Dead.
White communities are divided based on class, gender, sexual orientation, language, deafness, and other forms of social cleavages. Jim Crow racism was a combination of overt racist ideas and behaviors that emboldened the dominant race to subjugate Black communities through the judiciary system and violent means. The Black history during the Jim Crow era shows that white people’s road to the path of prosperity to occupy powerful positions such as politicians, judges, lawyers, doctors, business owners, real estate agents, union leaders, and the list goes on while blocking Black people’s road to prosperity. White privilege gave them a false sense that the road to prosperity only belonged to them.
America politically invested in a false notion of democracy on the international stage to present itself as the leader of the free world. Oh yes, this is the same country that fought against Nazi Germany during World War 2, allowed the Southern segregationists to violate civil rights activists’ 1st, 14th, and 15th amendments for the right to assemble to protest, citizenship that guaranteed all citizens with equal protection of the laws, and the right to vote. In simpler terms, it was cool to be openly anti-Black racist back in the day.
Everything changed with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s era, the civil rights activists held up a mirror that showed the cognitive dissonance side of America that claimed to be the land of opportunity for everyone. In a literal sense, Jim Crow racism became impractical socially and politically. In simpler terms, it is not cool to be openly anti-Black racist anymore.
White people had a better idea to convert their overt racist practices into covert practices to reinforce their white privilege without getting exposed as openly racists. They brought forth an Age of Colorblindness where racism was declared dead twice. First, they rely on MLK’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech excerpt about his dream of his children being judged on the content of character, not on race. Second, Obama’s historic presidency further cemented color-blind racism as our dominant racist ideology. They failed to mention that they unleashed a white backlash following the civil rights movement’s victories.
As a consequence of their white backlashes, They assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968. They passed “race-neutral” policies in education, employment, housing, health, policing, voting, and the list goes on. The countless data shows us that these policies disproportionately impact Black communities while benefiting white communities years after the Civil rights movement ended. Black people are being blamed for their problems while white people are swimming in the ocean of prosperity.
We saw a double white backlash reaction to Obama’s historical presidency, the rise of the Tea Party faction that fueled GOP’s obstructionism against the Obama presidency. On top of that, Trump took advantage of white people’s inherent racist beliefs that a Black man somehow is not a citizen and unfit to lead the country. Trump used Obama’s birtherism controversy to launch him to the Oval Office.
Black Deaf people did not escape the consequences of living in the Age of Colorblindness. In 2019, the National Deaf Center released their study called Postsecondary Achievement of Black Deaf People in the US to examine the structural racial disparities between Black Deaf people and white Deaf people. For instance, employment rate outcomes indicate that only 38.2% of Black Deaf people are employed compared to 54.4% of white Deaf people employed. 22.3% of Black Deaf people rely on Supplemental Security Income compared to 10.1% of white Deaf people to cover their necessities.
The full-time employment results showed the median earning of Black Deaf people is only making $14,000 less than their white counterparts. However, this study shows the rapidly declining percentage of Black Deaf people in postsecondary education. 12% of Black Deaf people graduated with bachelor’s degrees compared to nearly 20% white Deaf counterparts. Black Deaf postgraduates are hovering above 4% whereas white Deaf postgraduates are three times more likely to pursue a postgraduate degree.
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Racism without Racists author, stated that “whites experience even higher levels of social and spatial isolation than blacks, the “racial problems” related to their confinement in the prison built by racism. I label as a “white habitus,” a racialized, uninterrupted socialization process that conditions and creates whites’ racial taste, perceptions, feelings, and emotions, and their views on racial matters. White habitus promotes a sense of group belonging (a white culture of solitary) and negative views about nonwhites.”
In simpler terms, Silva described the power of the whiteness whose sense of reality vastly different from ours remains validated and unchallenged on racial matters and any issues. The truth is white people and white Deaf people talk about race as much as we do. They can’t be overtly racist as they desire because colorblind racism is perfectly compatible with an Age of Colorblindness where they can’t be held responsible for Black and Black Deaf people’s severely limited road to prosperity in this country of inequalities. They misunderstood the purpose behind Critical Race Theory. They don’t have any cares in understanding the Critical Race Theory. They keep insisting that racism is indeed “dead” to them for the third time. In simpler terms, they still see no race.
