Colorblind: fools-gold

In passing, Celia mentioned to me how susceptible to identity we are on campus. Because of the campus’s small nature, we are unable to slip into the crowd and walk faceless, anonymous to those around us. In order to combat this, she along with a few other people, dressed up in full body (including the head) suits. Still, even with their bodies and faces masked, I found that their veiled self distinguished them from the population far beyond what their true identity ever served. In this sense the removal of identity was unsuccessful. With this, they undertook two roles:  the elephant in the room and the open focus of everyone’s attention.  This is what colorblindness does. The blind are not just blinding themselves, but they are cloaking the identity of those who they refuse to see.  In a nation that is so utterly white and systematically enforces its whiteness, it is impossible to erase the ink that marks our history. Colorblindness is the refusal to read it—to recognize the individuals, whom have been silenced for so long. Unable to erase, white Americans’ cap this pen and disown the identity it marks. My reflection picture project embodies how ridiculous the idea of colorblindness is. It singles out those with an identity and removes it. The very idea of who are colorblind and who face the blind eyes emphasizes the inequality of the whole movement. White people are not blind to white people. White people are blind to colored people. Since whites are the majority, it leaves the minorities to be the elephant in the room. Ignored, but the focus—the center of everyone’s attention.