“SEE US“
Last week in a zoom meeting i found meself seeing red when talking to a prospective client. He had said probably for the fifth time that call one of the phases that makes me want to scream.
It was the age old expression,
”I don’t see colour”, when trying to show how non prejudice he believed he was.
But the statementt is an oxymoron. Our blackness is painted all over us. Of course they see it. They have to see it, and it is a huge part of who we are. Not to see it means you are missing a large part of us, the experiences that we have gone through, and ultimately the road we are travelling along.
People have to stop saying they do not see our colour, like it is something that needs to be overlooked, like some kind of disability. Our colour should not give us an advantage nor a disadvantage but they have to see that it partly informs who we are.
Maybe forty years ago such a statement would and should have been gratefully received. Any bone thrown our way was a relief and a chance for advancement, but today in this new light where everybody is rightfully embraced for who they are, please stop telling us that you do not see our colour. It is not a compliment because what they are really saying is, we do not make a negative judgment on you, because you are black. Well thank you so much!!
It’s as if the default setting is still that Black is bad and so by saying that they do not seeing our blackness, it means they are not going to believe the worse that they are thinking of from the outset.
Well it’s time that default position was eradicated. If they are going to see anything when they see a black person, it should be to see someone who probably has had to overcome many obstacles that they themselves may not have had to face. That the person standing before them is willing to do whatever it takes to succeeed because no one has been granting us any favours. No policemen are giving us the benefit of the doubt, few teachers probably believed in us from the start. But we climbed our own personal mountain to be here today and we are willing to climb every new one set before us.
We are proud of who we are and our blackness and while not the defining part of who we are, it is for many in the outside world the first thing they see when they look at us and so our lives are framed by the colour of our skin. We are proud of it, we are proud of our parents who strived to overcome the ingrained racism that they found and we are proud of the steps we have taken from the foundation they have given us..
When they look at us. We want them to see us.
Pull line
Maybe forty years ago we would have accepted this begrudging compliment, but not today.
