A review of controversy over the idea that race itself causes racism and that we would be better off returning to the ideal of a color blind approach to each other.

1. NAUA Academy
Color Blindness:
Part of the Problem or Part the Solution?
Speaker: Terry Anderson
Host: Joyce Francis
May 14, 2024

2. Outline
• Coleman Hughes and the infamous Color Blind Ted Talk
• Hughes’ - The End of Race Politics (2024)
• Sheena Mason’s - Theory of racelessness
• Are there any Rationale Reasons for Race-based policies?

3. Cultural Wars – Need we become
combatants?

4. My Introduction to Color Blindness as Racist Thinking

5. What is Race?
• Race is an extremely young concept (in light of our roughly
300,000 year history as Homo sapiens)
• Nebulous concept that we humans have created and used for
the most pernicious of purposes.
• as a justifier for chattel slavery,
• to bolster a false sense of superiority amongst some groups and
inferiority between others,
• to economically marginalise social classes, or a highly questionable
method of acquiring information about people.
Ehigie E. (2024)– Blinded by Colour: The Irish case for transcending. Journal of
Free Black Thought

6. Coleman Hughes
• 28 year old American writer and podcast host
• Newark Academy and was selected as a United
States Presidential Scholar
• graduated from Columbia University
• Hughes has written for Quillette,[The Spectator,
The New York Times, The Wall Street
Journal, National Review & Heterodox Academy
• Jazz Trombonist
• 16,000 followers on Facebook, YouTube
podcasts 176,000 followers

7. Hughes’ Infamous Ted Talk Podcast
• April 2023, Vancouver Ted Talk
• Titled “A Case for Color Blindness”
• Well rehearsed with Ted staff
• Well received by live audience
•The Backlash!

8. 13 minutes - https://www.ted.com/talks/coleman_hughes_a_case_for_color_blindness?language=en

9. • Hughes “ Color blindness is the antidote to the poison of racism”
• Bouie “major vector under which inequality happens, and it seems foolhardy
to ignore it or conflate it.”
• Both Hughes and Bouie argue It is really all about Class

10. • See Hughes’ FreePress 2023 article: Why Is TED Scared of Color
Blindness?

11. The End of Race
Politics: Arguments for
a Colorblind America –
2024
Coleman Hughes

12. Neo-Racist
“I thrive on Race!”
Anti-Racist
“Dismantle Racism NOW!”
“ the new race obsession that brands itself as ‘anti-racist’
is in fact the opposite - a social and political hellscape”.

13. The Myths of the NeoRacist Narrative
(From Hughes 2024)
• The Disparity Fallacy
• Demographic Differences
• Power of Culture
• The Myth of Undoing the Past
• The Myth of No Progress
• The myth of Inherited Trauma
• Racial Ad Hominem
• ”The Myth of Superior Knowledge and Lived Experience
• The Myth of Black Weakness

14. • See Dick Burkhart’s Book Review
of Hughes’ (2024)
• On Dick’s Subset Channel at
• https://earth0democracy.substa
ck.com/p/a-very-cogent-
common-sense-rejection

15. What is the Black Perspective?
Troubling consequences will flow, however, from acceding to demands
to view racial status as an intellectual credential.
First, legitimating the notion of racial credentials imperils the
ideal of a cosmopolitan intellectual community in which there exist no
stereo-typing expectations imposed upon an individual's work because
of his or her race.
One hears that there is a need to consult the racial identity of
candidates for citation or for faculty positions in order to attain a given
racial perspective - for example,
"a black perspective" or, as it is frequently stated, "the black
perspective." But what makes a perspective or opinion or style "black”?

16. “If you want to fight racism, remove race
from public policy,"
"And if you want to fight injustice,
do so based on class.” Coleman Hughes
Excellent Movie – Origin (2023)
Wilerson’s life as she investigates class across the globe

17. “Race Causes
Racism”
Sheena Mason

18. THEORY OF
RACELESSNESS: A
CASE FOR
ANTIRACE(ISM)
by Sheena Michele
Mason
“the theory presents a pathway toward
dismantling entrenched structures of racism and
fostering a society that celebrates the richness of
individual and collective identities unrestricted by
racism.” S.Mason PhD SUNY
https://www.theoryofracelessness.org

19. • In her teaching, scholarship, and service, Dr. Mason consistently and
unwaveringly promotes anti-racism, though her “anti-racism”
necessarily differs from traditional thought and practices.
• Dr. Sheena Mason launch Raceless Antiracism, an e-learning
community for the …. transcend beyond the conventional
understandings of racism, drawing evidence from literary
studies, human rights history, philosophy, journalism, and other
social sciences.

20. 2:15 Minute video
https://youtu.be/2T0dMEXt6BY?si=kjM4zUvrcm48Lw6q

21. Core tenets of The Theory
of Racelessness
1. Race/ism (i.e., racism) is a socially constructed system of
economic and social oppression that requires the belief in
“race” and the practice of racialization to reinforce various
power imbalances.
2. “Race” is an imaginary part of the socially constructed
reality of racism (i.e., race/ism).
3. Racialization is the process of applying an inescapable
economic and social class hierarchy—“race/ism”—to
humans that creates or reinforces power imbalances.

22. 4. The belief in “race” and practice of
racialization affect people differently. These
differences serve to uphold the machinery
of racism, acting as obstacles to unification,
healing, and reconciliation.
5. Translation of what one means by “race,”
including the presumed absence of “race” in
any context, can lead to understanding and
bridge-making. The racelessness translator
helps people interpret “race” into something
being said about the causes/effects of
racism, culture, ethnicity, social class,
economic class, or some combination.
6. Race/ism does not exist everywhere in
the same way and can be ended.

23. “Sheena M. Mason advances the
bold claim that racism is a crazy-
making regime that inspires
jaundiced categorizations of
American life in a foolish attempt
to order things by 'race.’”
Jacoby Adeshei Carter,
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Howard
University)

24. New book to be released Oct. 2024

26. Color Blind Systemic Racism

27. HOW TO BE LESS STUPID ABOUT RACE
On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide
Author:Crystal M. Fleming
Beacon Press
“Americans are kinda-sorta-maybe waking
up to the reality that our racial politics are
(still) garbage. But in the midst of this
reckoning, widespread denial and
misunderstandings about race persist, even
as white supremacy and racial injustice are
more visible than ever before” Amazon

28. “If you don’t see black, you don’t see me!”

29. 1.) Descendants of American slaves have suffered a continual disadvantage
since slavery was abolished,….. The historical residuum of this discrimination is
still with us.
2.) This problem needs to be made right by some form of reparations. A color-
blind society alone cannot make things right; we must have some form of
affirmative action.
3.) Only the descendants of slaves to get these advantages. It is slavery, and
slavery alone, that must be considered in affirmative action, not other historic
forms of racial discriminations
4.) Increasing "diversity" is of little consequence.
5.) Despite the "colorblindness" touted in King's famous speech, King also
wrote, “A society that has done something special against the Negro for
hundreds of years must now do something special for him.”
Summary by Jerry Coyne

30. Adia Harvey Wingfield Atlantic
2015
“By claiming that they do not see race,
they also can avert their eyes from the
ways in which well-meaning people
engage in practices that
reproduce neighborhood and school
segregation, rely on “soft skills” in ways
that disadvantage racial minorities in the
job market, and hoard opportunities in
ways that reserve access to better jobs
for white peers.

31. In Canada
• FIrst Nations peoples were treated very
badly by colonial governments.
• Canada Settles (2024) $2 Billion Suit
Over 'Cultural Genocide' at Residential
Schools. And deficits in family services.
The class action, brought by 325 First
Nations.
• Every former student of a residential
School received $10,000 for the first year
of schooling, and $3,000 for each
subsequent year.
• No payments for descendants of
residential schools.

32. Racism in Politics of the Left.
• “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or
Trump, you ain’t Black.” President J. Biden

33. Conclusion
• We need to rethink the focus on race
as a meaningful and useful way to
develop public policy and private
interactions.
• Huge social inequalities are highly
correlated with race.
• We need to constantly affirm, support
and realize “The inherent worth and
dignity of EVERY person”

34. • Slides Available at
https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/color-blindness-part-of-
the-problem-or-part-the-solution/268414135

35. Questions for our
Discussion
• Is Color Blindness only an
aspirational goal and not to be
used for practical decision
making?
• Does color-blindness as a driver
of policy and programs, work
better than DEI initiatives or
other race-conscious
approaches?

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