Controversial Topic Position Paper

This paper focuses on the position of the colored community in a diversified society. It discusses the ethnic, cultural, and diversity issues and proposes a statement about whether a colorblind society ends discrimination or not. Model of diversity; colorblind or multicultural society will be the topic of the arguments and rebuttal.  The counter-argument supports the foundation of a strong society which ends past traumas. Rebuttal to oppose the counter claims that this emphasis on a colorblind society is to maintain white privilege and not address racism. 

PSYC FPX 3540 Assessment 3 Controversial Topic Position Paper

Chosen topic

The chosen topic is a query that if emphasizes on a colorblind society an answer to racism. This issue relates to ethnic, cultural, and diversified discrimination against colored people. The question is if a colorblind society meaning ignoring racial, ethnic and skin color would end discrimination. 

Position and Arguments

Emphasizing a colorblind society is not an answer to end racism.  A color-blind society is an approach to end racism. This idea suggests that no attention to race or ethnicity will end discrimination in society as well, which seems impossible due to the diversified communities in the American community. African-American racial discrimination has a history, a long way back and it went through multiple legal and social dynamics. However, people still feel discriminated in multiple areas of life, for instance, work, education, house ownership, and other institutions as well for instance, statistics of black people in employment-population by race is 58.8% while white 59.9% and Hispanic 63.1%. In the academic area, credit earned for colored is 23% while white scored 40%. Similarly, health insurance is lacking for colored people as compared to white race citizens (Ward, 2020).  This shows how discrimination still exists in 21st-century America. The protests and statistics also suggest that black Americans still feel discriminated against in different institutions. For instance, workplace, one Harvard study shows that when black people changed their names to white names they were getting return calls by 25% (Ward, 2020). 

CB Society is not an Answer to Racism:

Acknowledging the problem is first step toward the solution of racism and here, the idea of color-blind society is like ignoring the existence of colorblind individuals altogether (Hoskin, n.d.).  In my opinion, a color-blind society is not an answer because ignoring someone’s race, ethnicity,ity and cultural identity will also disregard their values and reasons for behaving in a certain manner. So, not acknowledging that someone belongs to this race, gender, or culture will lead to discrimination. 

Counterarguments 

The advocators of a color-blind society have created a positive image and trend as #AllLivesMatter and ‘I don’t see color, I just see people’ to carry out antiracist campaigns (Steckervetz, 2021). The supporters of color-blind society believe that talking about racism and discrimination is reason for hype about racism. They claim that the idea of a color-blind society will help end all historical bitterness related to racism, it will an opportunity to forget the past and set aside current trauma before interacting. The image is of ideal attractive society, having an etiquette-based society, where the government does not need to interfere in school admission or workplace, the majority does not need to resent minorities for having unfair privileges, and people are distinguished by personality, not race (Plaut et al., 2018).

The advocators claim that they don’t believe that racial or ethnic discrimination is now part of American society, rather it is a personalized incident of intolerance (Cunningham & Scarlato, 2018). The health industry workers say that they do not accept any disparity in their organization because of race-neutral policy is part of their organizationIt’s claims to change the social trajectory of diversity and racism by introducing equity in schools, colleges, workplaces and politics as well, for instance teachers when asked how much diverse students they have in a class and their response is they cannot tell, because they don’t notice color. They believe that colorblind society targets ego-protective features which lowers racism (Plaut et al., 2018).

PSYC FPX 3540 Assessment 3 Controversial Topic Position Paper

CB Society is the answer to Racism

An American abolitionist president named Wendell Phillips used the colorblind approach by introducing position in government for colorblind individuals (Finkenbine, 2005). It was to eliminate any laws based on race and biological features like skin. As Civil Rights Movement’s aim was to eliminate laws that segregated African-Americans, so the purpose of colorblind way to achieve that goal legally and socially. The metaphoric meaning of ‘colorblind’ is the best approach to providing equitable opportunities and resources to all social groups within a society. This proves that a colorblind society is an answer to end a race-prejudiced system. If society wants to see the application of a colorblind society, they should watch ‘blind orchestra audition’ where judges select contestants from behind the veil (Marino, 2022). To conceal the identity of the performer and avoid any biased decisions. Such ignorance is a blessing for everyone’s benefit.  

Rebuttals

In response to advocates who support the color blind theory, people claim that color blind theory is emphasized by white people and not the colored community (Cunningham & Scarlato, 2018). The institutional strategies to introduce a color-blind society is only devised to keep the white race at an advantage. Research shows that the colorblind approach influences dance education negatively. The research also challenges the neutrality of whiteness, discussing the solution as well by pointing out race role in discrimination and racist practices. (Prichard, 2019) The social cognitive theory says that a person goes through four stages before adopting a behavior, people observe, ingrain ideas in mind, play the role, and depending upon reward or punishment they perform different actions (Amodio, 2019). All this is motivated by cognitive and social elements. The Denying existence of racism issue would not resolve it but only make it an implicit way to carry prejudice, racism and discrimination. The related theory to rebuttal that is color evasion can also lead to power evasion. Ignoring color or race increases anti-black sentiments making colored people lose their identity and lead to misunderstanding, invalidating experience along with taking the topic off the table instead of making it a priority of the table discussion. 

If racism was not a big issue and ignoring color make it easy to lower discrimination, the White House would not introduce a committee to eliminate all kinds of racism (The White House, 2021). Statistics prove that in employment criteria, health, higher positions like CEO, economy and even the justice system, colored people are clearly discriminated. For instance, during covid-19, unemployment was highest at 5.7% while the white race was at 3.9% (Ward, 2020). For the Fortune 500 list of 2022, only 6 black were in CEO positions out of 681 companies (Ward, 2020). Economically, the white race’s per capita income is $ 48.7KK while the black is $29.6K (Ward, 2020). Surprisingly, sentenced prisoners are higher in number as compared to US populations. Drug possession and marijuana possession arrest numbers also significantly differ (Ward, 2020). Such disparity in all areas of life does not make it believable that simply turning blind can make a significant difference

Supportive Evidence

The statistics and arguments clarify that the colorblind society is an emphasis of white people, it is not supported by colored people at any level. White race are justifying their beliefs and values making it an implicit way to discriminate (Crandall & Eshleman, 2003). This also makes health, education, workplace, and justice system exclusive instead of inclusive. Disparity in education, media, health, housing, and criminal justice is still part of American society for instance, harsher punishments for colored students in school and people in prisons. The ideal society is to have multicultural society and color-conscious (Plaut et al., 2018). The ethical concerns lie in the factor that white people dismiss and disregard the concerns of a colored person. It removes the plausibility of racism and ends opportunities to address it, hence depriving basic rights. The white community also depicts less empathy towards racial issues and higher apathy towards racism because of colorblind society agenda (Plaut et al., 2018).

Conclusion

The chosen controversial issue was about a colorblind society being a solution to racial discrimination. In a personal point of view, the oblivion attitude is not practical. The colored people are still talking about racial and cultural discrimination. The counter-argument claims that the less you talk about something, the less it becomes complicated. Their institutionalized strategies of introducing color blind policies tends to depict a picture of an inclusive society however rebuttal by the colored community denies this strategy. Colored people believe that this is another sort of marginalization for black people, disregarding their concerns and making white race at an advantage. The evidence suggests that ethical concerns in all fields deny the idea of the success of a colored-blind society. 

PSYC FPX 3540 Assessment 3 Controversial Topic Position Paper

References

Amodio, D. M. (2019). Social Cognition 2.0: An Interactive Memory Systems Account. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 23(1), 21–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2018.10.002

 Crandall, C. S., & Eshleman, A. (2003). A justification-suppression model of the expression and experience of prejudice. Psychological Bulletin, 129(3), 414–446. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.3.414 

Cunningham, B. A., & Scarlato, A. S. M. (2018). Ensnared by colorblindness: discourse on health care disparities. Ethnicity & Disease, 28(Supp 1), 235. https://doi.org/10.18865/ed.28.s1.235 

Finkenbine, R. E. (2005). Wendell Phillips and “The Negro’s Claim”: A neglected reparations document. Massachusetts Historical Review, 7, 105–119. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25081197 

Hoskin, M. N. (n.d.). Color-Blindness perpetuates structural racism. Forbes. Retrieved February 2, 2023, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/maiahoskin/2022/09/28/newsflash-color-blindness-perpetuates-structural-racism/?sh=78156b5f1ae9 

Marino, S. (2022). Orchestrating Equity: What antidiscrimination law can learn orchestrating equity: what antidiscrimination law can learn from blind hiring in American orchestras repository citation. https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=prize_papers 

Plaut, V. C., Thomas, K. M., Hurd, K., & Romano, C. A. (2018). Do color blindness and multiculturalism remedy or foster discrimination and racism? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(3), 200–206. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418766068 

Prichard, R. (2019). From color-blind to color-conscious. Journal of Dance Education, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/15290824.2018.1532570 

Steckervetz, L. (2021, November 2). Research help: Anti-racism Resources: What Does Racism Look Like? Colorblindness. Fitchburgstate.libguides.com. https://fitchburgstate.libguides.com/c.php?g=1046516&p=7616506 

The White House. (2021, March 21). Fact Sheet: U.S. Efforts to Combat Systemic Racism. The White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/21/fact-sheet-u-s-efforts-to-combat-systemic-racism/ 

Ward, S. G., Andy Kiersz, Michelle Mark, Ruobing Su, Marguerite. (2020, July 8). 26 simple charts to show friends and family who aren’t convinced racism is still a problem in America. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/us-systemic-racism-in-charts-graphs-data-2020-6#black-americans-are-underrepresented-in-high-paying-jobs-3