black student learning matters
confronting
colorblindness
By edward Fergus
Colorblindness is socially
acceptable bias that
lives in our personal and
institutional beliefs. Its
existence inhibits our ability
to recognize and respond to
the realities of the lives of
students of color.
30 Kappan February 2017
D
uring a fall opening conference day for a school
district, I provided a keynote on different forms
of bias, with a focus on the notion of colorblind-
ness. I said that racial/ethnic minority groups
perceive colorblindness as a way for whites to
ignore the social reality of people of color while
whites perceive colorblindness as a magnani-
mous gesture that does not judge individuals by
skin color or other external markers.
“Not seeing that I am a black Latino male means that you are
omitting the basis for some of my lived experiences,” I said to the
group.
After the presentation, the superintendent, with whom I had
developed a great friendship, approached me about her own con-
fusion about colorblindness. “Eddie, I don’t see your color, and I
don’t treat you that way,” she said.
I responded candidly to her. “If you are not seeing my color, that
means you are treating me like yourself, which means that at some
point I will do or say something that does not fit the image of the
white woman you were treating me like,” I said.
edWaRd FeRguS (eddiefergus@gmail.com, @eddiearcia) is an assistant
professor of educational leadership and policy at New York University. He is
the author of Solving Disproportionality and Achieving Equity (Corwin Press,
2016).
V98 N5 kappanmagazine.org 31
Thinkstock/iStock
Colorblindness is socially acceptable bias that lives In school, colorblindness can send a message to
in our personal and institutional beliefs. Based on children that everyone shares the same cultural
my research of teacher beliefs, an important com- experience. For example, when we reviewed the
ponent of colorblindness to understand is the man- 28 novels read by children from 6th through 12th
ner in which it dangerously sustains a white cultural grade in one district, we learned that none of the
frame for looking at everything (Fergus, 2016). More principal characters in those books were either black
specifically this cultural frame is predicated on social or Latino. This means all children — not just black
identity experiences in which discrimination or mar- and Latino children — are learning that black and
ginalization are non-elements of everyday life and Latino people do not play major roles in literature
allows interpreting the world as such. It frames how or life. Translating colorblindness into curriculum
teachers view an argument between a white and black also can telegraph messages to children that the
student in the hallway or when reprimanding Mex- cultural experience of being white and middle class
ican-American students for talking Spanish in the is the desired standard.
hallway or when continuously identifying black stu- Colorblindness, according to Eduardo Bonilla-
dents for wearing “nice” or matching clothes and not Silva (2003) emerged after the civil rights era, al-
sufficiently for their good academic performance. In though society also embraced this ideology as a way
those examples, a white cultural frame omits all social to absorb immigrants during the early 1900s. After
realities other than a white social identity. the civil rights era, individuals embraced colorblind-
ness in the belief that this would help end discrimina-
tion by ensuring that we no longer would see race or
ethnicity as a barrier between individuals. Bonilla-
Silva highlights three features of a colorblindness
ideology:
• Individuals believe they are minimizing the
presence of racism by omitting race, gender,
Colorblindness dangerously and other identities as valid social descriptors,
saying, for example, “I don’t see color.”
sustains a white cultural frame • Individuals believe they are benefitting
for looking at everything. individuals when they disregard their social
identities or group affiliations.
• Individuals believe they are reducing discrimi-
nation when they focus on the commonalities
between individuals.
But colorblindness also allows its practitioners
to rationalize racial inequality. Adherents of color-
blindness would argue that certain situations arise
due only to natural conditions or the cultural behav-
iors of certain groups. For example, a colorblindness
belief attributes residential segregation in urban and
suburban communities to the ability of individuals to
afford a home and are blind to the subtle practices
and processes of realtors limiting home or apart-
ment views (Ondrich, Ross, & Yinger, 2002) or
banks quoting higher interest rates on loans (Fish-
bein & Bunce, 2001) to low-income and racial/eth-
nic and linguistic minority groups. Colorblindness
underlies some explanations of limited diversity in
employment hiring even though numerous studies
document patterns such as differential response to
individuals based on race association to a name (Ber-
trand & Mullainathan, 2004) or black applicants with
no criminal record being offered low-wage jobs at
lower rates than white applicants with criminal re-
cords (Pager, Western, & Bonilowski, 2009).
32 Kappan February 2017
A current example of colorblindness can be seen practitioners, specifically, do not experience guilt or
in how some charter schools and charter advocacy fragility (DiAngelo, 2011).
groups frame the need for school choice. Specifi- The politeness protocol is the societal expectation
cally, charter school proponents suggest that char- that we avoid talking about certain topics — such as
ter schools are necessary because regular public religion, money, and race — in “mixed” company.
schools are governed in ways that limit innovation, The politeness protocol helps manage race dialogues
which prevents them from hiring the best teachers from being discussed and/or being carried forward
and using the best strategies. However, they fail to by many participants in any conversation.
acknowledge that innovation is absent because of The academic protocol insists that we omit emotions
how society has historically devalued the education from any race dialogue. It’s the old adage of “let’s
of marginalized populations. This omission among not get emotional” or “just keep it to the facts with- Join the conversation
charter advocacy groups demonstrates a colorblind out emotion.” Avoiding emotion is another form of
facebook.com/pdkintl
frame for rationalizing their approach. And some oppression. Requiring marginalized individuals to @pdkintl
would argue that colorblind rationalizing sets the share their narrative without emotions is inappro-
stage for developing school-based strategies that priate; the experiences of marginalization leave an
focus on “fixing” psychological and behavioral dis- individual with emotional scars.
positions of youth and their families, such as parents The colorblind protocol refers to universalizing the
signing attendance contracts, requiring students to experience of marginalization. This is often heard
demonstrate how to sit in a chair, adopting school in the form of “I grew up poor and white with black
mission statements that say “There are no shortcuts people, so I understand,” or “I experience similar
in life.” Thus, a colorblindness belief prevents an marginalization because I am gay.” This protocol
individual from understanding how the historical presents two concerns. First, it creates an oppres-
nature of discrimination, politics, policy, and eco- sion Olympics conversation that stalls our ability to
nomics marginalized racial and ethnic minorities discuss each form of oppression. Second, universal-
and subsequently limited access and opportunity. izing oppression makes race a null or unimportant
Furthermore, such a belief prevents educators from conversation point.
understanding that black and Latino student mis-
behaviors are sometimes responses borne out of
despair, anger, frustration, and fear of continuous Sample colorblindness statements
marginalization. As Bonilla-Silva describes, these
colorblindness frames operate as cul-de-sacs that #1. I try to ignore skin color in order to view minority
allow individuals to misinterpret the world and students as individuals.
make them unable to see themselves as privileged
because they never have to experience or imagine #2. Sometimes I wonder why we can’t see each
marginalization. other as individuals instead of race always being
an issue.
From colorblindness to color consciousness
#3. I try not to notice a child’s race or skin color in
No area of work is more difficult than reformulat-
ing the beliefs and worldviews of educators as school the classroom setting.
districts try to develop, implement, and monitor an #4. It is rude when Latino students speak Spanish in
equity perspective and pedagogical lens. Practitio- the classroom.
ners must be able to know how to engage, lead and/or
manage these conversations so they are constructive.
To do so, leaders must understand two critical dy-
namics of race dialogues before engaging in staff de- Comfortable and uncomfortable tensions
velopment based on colorblindness: the protocols of Educators often wonder what they can do regard-
race dialogues that co-opt their productivity and how ing race and racism. Mica Pollock and colleagues
to manage the comfortable and uncomfortable ten- (2010) suggest that teachers break down their re-
sions individuals experience in these race dialogues. sponses into three tensions: personal, structural,
and strategies. First, individuals can ask questions of
Protocols of race dialogues themselves such as, how often do I engage with oth-
Derald Wing Sue (2013) identifies three conversa- ers different from myself, what is my level of comfort
tion protocols that get in the way of having produc- with others different from myself, what is my racial
tive race conversations: academic, colorblind, and memory, what are the cultural artifacts that define
politeness. Each protocol operates differently with me, and who are my affinity groups? Second, they
the goal of managing these dialogues so that white can explore how an individual can make a difference
V98 N5 kappanmagazine.org 33
within specified structural conditions, such as seg-
regation, oppression, and racism. Finally, they can
introduce equity into actionable activities in their
classrooms and schools.
Colorblindness assumes that social identities, spe-
cifically race, are constantly downplayed by individu-
als who are outside of a specific racial/ethnic minor-
ity group. The following activities are intended to
provide practitioners an opportunity to think about
how their colorblindness emerges from their limited
personal experiences.
Racial memory activity. This activity helps prac-
titioners consider their initial memories about race
and ethnicity and how those memories frame their
current thinking. Practitioners spend 10 to 15 min-
utes writing about an event for one or each of the
three stages — elementary years, middle and high
school years, and college years and beyond. Once
complete, practitioners pair up and begin sharing
some of the memories. Some guiding questions
for this discussion are: What did you learn at each
stage? Who did you learn it from? How do you
think today? Allow 15 to 20 minutes for this dis-
cussion. The facilitator then reconvenes the large
group and discusses the following questions: What
did you learn from the reflections exercise? What
racial memories are your students developing? How
do we help students develop healthy racial and other
identities?
Educators must be aware of
Seeing your race-life journey. This activity al- bias-based beliefs and put those
lows practitioners to discuss the racial and ethnic
composition of their personal friendships. The fa- front and center as they develop
cilitator begins by identifying a large room such
as a cafeteria or a gym in which practitioners can
practices and policies.
move around easily and have conversations. The
facilitator labels the four corners of the room with
the following titles: black and black ethnics, white
and white ethnics, Latino/a, and Asian and Pacific
Islander. (Note: Adapt these labels so they’re appro-
priate for the racial and ethnic groups in your com-
munity.) The facilitator then guides practitioners
to begin in the middle of the room and asks them
to think about their elementary-age close friend-
ships and to move to the corner of the room that
contains the label of the racial and ethnic group
that primarily identifies their close friendship cir- the memories shared? Did some of you stay in the
cle. Once practitioners are in these corner groups, same corner for most of your life journey? If so,
facilitator asks them to discuss the following ques- what does that have you thinking about your life
tion: What are some positive memories you have journey? Did some of you move in or out of vari-
about these friendships? After five to 10 minutes of ous corners? If so, what does that have you thinking
conversation the facilitator continues with middle, about your life journey? The facilitator wraps up
high school, college, and adulthood. At the end of this activity with a conversation with practitioners
the last grouping, practitioners stay in their areas about what it means for them to work with racial/
and consider the following questions: What did ethnic minority student populations when they do
you notice about your life journey regarding your not have enough prior close friendship experiences
close friendships? What are some of the themes in that assist in providing mental schemas.
34 Kappan February 2017
Looking at your bias. Practitioners go online reviewing data on disparity patterns with school
and complete the Implicit Association Test (IAT) district leaders, an assistant superintendent paused
(https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest. the data review and said they were uncomfortable
html). Practitioners can bring the results from the talking about subgroup data because they grew up
test to the next staff development or grade-level being told that saying “black” is inappropriate. This
meeting and engage in a conversation about the find- leader’s discomfort with even naming racial/ethnic
ings. The group should engage the following types groups demonstrates how difficult it would be to
of questions: How do you feel about the results? Are engage educators in a conversation where the black
these findings surprising? If so, how; if not, why not? experience could even be discussed.
Can you think of examples of when these biases show Pretending that the color of someone’s skin has not
up in your day-to-day interactions? shaped their experience in life is not an appropriate
Moving from colorblindness to colorbrave. Dur- response for educators. But educators must be aware
ing a staff meeting, have practitioners watch the fol- of bias-based beliefs and put those front and center as
lowing Ted Talk by Mellody Hobson in which she they develop practices and policies. Otherwise we run
discusses moving away from being colorblind to be- the risk of building more educational reforms that see
ing colorbrave: www.ted.com/talks/mellody_hob- marginalized populations as the problem. K
son_color_blind_or_color_brave?
As a follow-up, practitioners can take Hobson’s
definition of colorbrave and apply it during profes-
sional learning community meetings, grade-level References
collaborative meetings, staff development, and Bertrand, M. & Mullainathan, S. (2004). Are Emily and Greg
such. more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A field experiment
on labor market discrimination. American Economic Review,
Summary
94 (4), 991-1013.
Colorblindness is a complex belief system. Those
who embrace colorblindness do so with good inten- Bonilla-Silva, E. (2003). Racism without racists: Color-blind
tions, believing that they are moving beyond race racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United
to see individuals as merely themselves and not as States. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
representatives of a race or ethnicity. But refusing to Join the conversation
DiAngelo, R. (2011). White fragility. International Journal of
recognize race means that persons of color, in partic-
Critical Pedagogy, 3 (3). facebook.com/pdkintl
ular, cannot be fully understood because a significant @pdkintl
part of their experience is being ignored. In a broader Fergus, E. (2016). Social reproduction ideologies: Teacher
sense, refusing to recognize race presents a danger beliefs about race and culture. In D. Connor, B. Ferri, & S.
because that refusal allows groups to deny the pres- Annamma (eds), DisCrit: Disability studies and critical race
ence of institutional racism or discrimination and theory. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
place sole responsibility on individuals or groups.
Fishbein, A. & Bunce, H. (2001). Subprime market growth and
Educators play a unique role in responding to this.
predatory lending. In Housing Policy in the New Millennium:
They can model for students what it means to be
Conference Proceedings, 273. Washington, DC: U.S.
color conscious and not colorblind. They also can
Dept. of Housing & Urban Development. www.huduser.org/
demonstrate why major educational reforms should
Publications/pdf/brd/13Fishbein.pdf.
focus on disparity.
As U.S. society continues to diversify, students will Ondrich, J., Ross, S., & Yinger, J. (2002). Now you see it,
need cross-cultural tools as part of their social and now you don’t: Why do real estate agents withhold available
emotional development. Educators can model for houses from black customers? Economics Working Papers.
youth and create school cultures and climates that Paper #200101. http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/econ_
emphasize cross-cultural skills. The Every Student wpapers/200101
Succeeds Act appears to be encouraging more atten-
tion to social-emotional learning in schools, which Pager, D., Western, B., & Bonikowski, B. (2009). Discrimination
gives educators an opportunity to support students in a low-wage labor market: A field experiment. American
in developing competencies such as social awareness. Sociological Review, 74, 777-799.
But practitioners also must be brave in confronting Pollock, M., Deckman, S., Mira, M., & Shalaby, C. (2010). But
discrimination and bias in school processes head-on what can I do?: Three necessary tensions in teaching teachers
— for example, disproportionality in special educa- about race. Journal of Teacher Education, 61 (3), 211-224.
tion, suspension, gifted/AP/honors programs, and
achievement. But, for some educators, that requires Sue, D.W. (2013). Race talk: The psychology of race
a big leap. In one recent case, for instance, while dialogues. American Psychologist, 68 (8), 663-672.
V98 N5 kappanmagazine.org 35
Copyright of Phi Delta Kappan is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may
not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's
express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for
individual use.
