The Blueness of an African Butterfly
Color blindness is a handicap,
a poorly constructed ideological excuse
to remain white while blotting out color:
attempting to blot out color on the basis of a lie;
a lie based on the assumption that the
Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil Rights Movement
were enough;
a lie based on the assumption that the election
of a black man as president
means I now live in a post-racial, colorblind society.
The weakness in color blindness is this:
In a feeble attempt to blot out color
lies a feeble attempt to put a mind at ease,
pretending not to see what is blatantly obvious:
a nation up to its neck in the hidden figures of inequality.
When you sit on an eastern beach and watch the sun rise,
do you not see the magnificent way the color lights up the sky, bouncing off the ocean like rays of pure gold?
Isn’t that magnificent color part of the beauty of the sunrise?
When you walk through a field of wildflowers,
do you not see the way each individual flower…
