TRUE COLORS

I engaged the owner slash manager of Corporate Bread in some social grooming a few days back. You know, small talk. I asked her how many job applications they get and what criteria they use when hiring new people. She started telling me about the "stranger people" she had interviewed in the past. The first was a black man who according to her had some chip on his shoulder about his race because he was constantly talking about it. And then Snow White threw up her hands, confounded and exclaimed, “I didn’t understand it. What was his deal? I never think about race.”

Exactly. She never thinks about race because she’s never had to think about race. She is a white woman and her race has never been an obstacle for her, as it so obviously was for the interviewee. I know it’s fashionable to claim you do not notice the vast palate of skin tones that mottle your surroundings but just hold up a gosh darn minute oh noble one, oh crusader of ideals, you. We're not living the United Colors of Beneton utopia just yet. By ignoring people’s race you are closing all sensitivity to their experience. Although I do not define myself by my race it is a part of who I am and how I have experienced the world. By pretending not to see it you are pretending not to see a part of me.

Diatribe over.

The end.