Television, ethnicity and color blind racism

There has been a recent shift in casting in prime television shows this season. Cristela, Black-ish, Fresh Off the Boat, Empire, How to Get Away with Murder, are a few of these new shows that have been some of the best, most watched, and critically acclaimed in a long time. The best part is there are more roles with actors of color who portray actually complex, multidimensional characters, and some of these shows even actually address issues of class and racism. As with any good thing, there has also been some ignorant backlash.  

This piece by Sonia Saraiya discusses the backlash and why it is ridiculous. Sonia cites a specific article written by Nellie Andreeva in which Nellie complains bout the amount of ethnic roles calling it unfair, and stating, "Instead of opening the field for actors of any race to compete for any role in a color-blind manner, there has been a significant number of parts designated as ethnic this year, making them off-limits for Caucasian actors." 

First of all, many people think that being color-blind is a good thing, but it's not. It's another form of racism. Ignoring the differences among and between races minimizes parts of a person's identity. You can't simply not see that someone is black. They can't ignore it on a daily basis, with the presence of institutional racism, so doing so is a form of privilege. People of color experience the U.S. differently, so thinking that everyone is the same is a flawed notion.

Second, TV shows with all white casts have been around forever, there are hundreds. So it's not unfair that the few shows we have today are all casts of people of color, its great, and very much needed. 

There are four frames used to justify the continued discrimination in color-blind racism. 

1. Abstract Liberalism- a focus on economics, the idea that everyone has the same chance, the "bootstraps" theory.

2. Naturalization - the notion that it's natural for blacks and whites to segregate and be with people that look like yourself. 

3. Cultural Racism - believing that the way people behave is attributed to their culture, creating a deficit. 

4. Minimization - believing that people talk about race too much, that the conversation is not important. 

Many people think that because we have a black president that we are in a post-racial society, but it's simply not true. People like Oprah and Obama are exceptional figures. Just because Oprah can do it doesn't mean any black person can just work hard and "make it". There is more to it that just pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. There is still racism today. It may not be necessarily as overt as it has been historically, but it is certainly still there, in our institutions, ingrained in our society and our structures. The only way you can ignore it is because you are privileged to not be faced with it on a daily basis, and in that case, you're too ignorant to see how important the conversation around racism is.