Abby Bangs -Race

      3 Comments on Abby Bangs -Race

“We are a product of our own upbringing.” Last class we spent time talking about how an individual’s surroundings and upbringings can have major influence over their perspective and thus, their identity. Does that mean that we are all subjectively biased towards things such as race? Yes, I think so. Although race is a construct, it is seen everywhere, which further makes it a strong construct within the establishment of our own society. However, as of right now, race is a needed construct. Not in the sense that racism is needed, and that the individual distinction of race is relevant towards greater things, however, as long as the problem of racism exists, the construct of race needs to exist. To have racism, but to be “color blind” is to be subjecting the individual self to ignorance towards the problem of racism altogether. Being “color blind” is like turning heads away from racism altogether. Does racism still exist? Does racial prejudice still exist? To be “color blind” creates an aura of a hero complex, does it ‘fix’ racism if you, yourself, are “color blind”? I believe that color blindness is a form of performative activism, or in other words, performing the act of a movement for a beneficial gain; was anything benefitted by one person being color blind? Moving on, performative activism is prevalent across media outlets, especially instagram. Media, is said to be home of sites meant to engage, represent, and communalize race. However, media is also an outlet where an individual can mold a ‘fake identity’ (reference identity keywords.) The problem of performative activism in social media is that someone can post a “Share for BLM” and then do nothing afterwards. It’s almost as if taking 1 second to share a post promoting a movement is enough to help ‘solve’ what that movement is fighting for. It’s just not enough, but continuously, posts are shared promoting movements, however, for the majority of time, these movements don’t even benefit from the sharing of the posts.

3 thoughts on “Abby Bangs -Race

  1. Thomas Takele

    I agree about your comments on “colorblindness” in terms of race. I believe that if people acted “colorblind this would bring no help to the circumstances that the people go through. People who are blinded would also be blind to the systematic issues that affect the people they are “blind” to. This creates a society that does not realize other people’s struggles and lives an individualistic lifestyle that spreads people apart instead of bringing them together

  2. Lana Vjestica

    I definitely agree with your comments on being “color blind”. I think it’s very easy for white people to say “I’m not racist. I just don’t see color”. They don’t realize how problematic that statement could be. It’s a lot easier for people to be performative activists nowadays with social media. They’re so used to just reposting anything they see with the hashtag #BLM and not really taking the time to take in what they’re posting. Same with posting a link to a petition. Many people will repost the link but won’t even take the time to sign it because they want to be seen as a good person but are too lazy to actually be one.

  3. Benjamin Cudmore

    We all know through the reading and life experiences that race is definitely a major unnatural social construct that plagues humanity. There is no question that people are subject to perceiving race due to the society surrounding them. I agree with your notion that being “color blind” to race is a performative act to appear progressive, but not willing to fight against racial injustice. Performative activism online (like your example) is also something I find hypocritical and annoying when those same people do not take any action.

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