Does Color Fucking Matter?

Ever see color? Color in regard to one’s skin?

I ask because throughout my lifetime, I have heard many, many times from folks who I am in regular contact with that they do not see color. Their opinion is that we all live in the same world, and if everyone would just “not see color,” then gosh darnit, this ding dang world would be a grand ol’ place to be. Because, they say, color does not matter.

Something else that I have been witness to is the insistence from folks that because their white European ancestors some thousand years ago were considered the “niggers of Europe,” they share my racist history of colonization. With this, I have had a number of cohorts say in all seriousness and without a hint of reality, “I understand your struggle, Sister! I understand because I share your oppression.”

Did I mention that the only people who have said these things to me are white skinned and therefore privy to all of the privilege entitled and contained thereof?

“When those who serve defer to the authority of the experience of the oppressed, social change is possible.”

I have taken this quote from fellow journalist Bonnie Tinker. While her statement speaks specifically to the experience of battered women and the need to create and support a movement that includes the leadership of victims and survivors of domestic violence, I am significantly moved by her statement. I am moved because this statement contains in its few words the message that all too often falls deaf on the ears of the white radical and Progressive Left.

I spoke at and had an interesting experience at a 2008 pre-May Day event in Portland.

Read more here: http://mostlywater.org/does_color_fucking_matter