April Eberhardt: Bravery is now
History doesn’t lie and denial doesn’t make manufactured truths real. But – history does prophesy. Colorblindness and the toxic positivity it nurtures is a deceptive and pathological theory that aids and abets accountability avoidance for wrongs that laid the quicksand of disenfranchisement for centuries. Color was the basis of the Dred Scott Decision of 1846 and Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896. Color prejudice is and has always been the indoctrination that has never been broken in the United States of America. Colorblindness is the lie of racial superiority, unspoken but adhered to in silence, and the defense of those who don’t really want you there in the first place, and a scapegoat of deflection from seeing all the sons and daughters of this country as equal. Colorblindness convinces cowards and complicit good citizens that merit has always been a fair test, that patriotism is defined by a flawed definition of liberty, and that integrity does not matter for everyone. Colorblindness is a security blanket for those who brainwash themselves into thinking that they are not prejudiced, the silent denial of those who consider themselves the biological children of America.