Colorblindness

Reflect and write on the ties between Lewis’ discussion of the ways that colorblindness benefits white speakers, and Gee’s discussions of upper-middle class teens’ “distinctive social language” used to “strategically distance themselves from everyday social interaction (p. 418 in Teenagers in New Times).

In Lewis’ discussion she claims that “colorblindness” benefits white speakers. White speakers claim colorblindness in order to protect them selves from possibly being called racists. In our discussions on culture of power we’ve discussed that the culture of power is controlled by those of wealth. I think Bloome’s article brought up an interesting observation about the locations of Starbucks restaurants in Columbus. This restaurants that target people of a higher economic standing had no locations in the poorer neighborhoods that in itself is a type of discrimination. In Gee’s discussions where he states that “upper-middle class teens use a distinctive social language to strategically distance themselves from everyday social interaction (p. 418 in Teenagers in New Times).” I feel that this means that they are simply using their culture of power to hide from things that their social studies teach would make them describe as “different”. They are taught to use different words in order to avoid being offensive. This goes back to the issue of claiming colorblindness in order to avoid being considered racist.