SELF REFLECT -

One of the consistent harms that people of colour experience is hearing from white identified folks that they don’t see colour. Often this statement is offered up with the intention of providing comfort or ease. It is meant as a denial of one’s racism, exclusion or othering.

So why can this be experienced as harmful? It denies that people have been racialised in order to support the dominance and harm that comes from racism and other forms of oppression. It is a denial of the real lived experience that many people of colour share because they are in systems that are dependent on their being seen as not white or specifically as a person of colour. Dependent to keep systems that are normative to white-identiffied folks in place, which are racist and oppressive.

Race very well may be a construct, but its byproduct, racism is very real, has real consequences on people of colour.

Anti-racist tip:

Instead of proclaiming that you don't see colour, You can not comment or express an appreciation or some support for the person that acknowledges them or demonstrates that you see and appreciate them.