9
White Parents Who Tell Their Kids That Race Doesn’t Matter are Ignoring the Long Shadow of Racism
(www.counterpunch.org)
this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2026
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I received this sort of race blind teaching when I was younger. I've noticed that the effects have not stayed with me, but when I was able to talk to my dad about these sorts of things when we were older, he tended to try and deny that racism even existed anymore. This in itself is pretty dang racist. Race blind teaching teaches that the lower rates of admission to universities among black people is their own fault. Or the disproportionate areas of poverty among black communities is also their own fault. It ignores the long long history of white people subjugating other races in the United States and assumes that everybody starts off with the same level. Of course this isn't said or taught or even derived, but there is a weird emphasis on merit in school. Like with the SAT or other standardized tests.
When I was in high school wrestling, I went to different schools for wrestling meets. When I was there, I saw that my school was very well funded and theirs were not as well funded. You could see it with the crumbling plaster or old equipment. Broken furniture or grimy floors. Not to say that the school wasn't functional, but it just wasn't as nice and I imagined that the kids there don't have the same resources that I did. I realized it was probably tougher to grow up there than it was in my community. I'm sure the other people could adapt to it, but it was certainly a measure of visible wealth inequality.
Something that is actively taught in some white households is that the status quo is good. There used to be problems with race in the past or discrimination against other minorities in the past. But today we're doing really well and we don't need to prop up other people anymore. It breeds a very unsympathetic person concerned with one's own welfare instead of the welfare of all people. It leads to people supporting law enforcement instead of systemic reform. And in this way, it perpetuates racism. Not a loud, boisterous and riotous racism, but an insular and patronizing racism.