Sea Change Radio

Rod Graham: Color-Consciousness Not Colorblindness


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Many of us grew up under the impression that "colorblindness," or pretending not to see racial differences was virtuous. An important contribution of critical race theory, however, is the recognition that the colorblind philosophy is tantamount to ignoring racial injustice. This week's guest on Sea Change Radio, Dr. Rod Graham, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia and a contributor to The Editorial Board, espouses color-consciousness over colorblindness. We discuss the racial divide in America, what bridge-building across race might look like, and why majority rule cannot be counted on to advance the rights of a minority group.



Narrator  0:02  This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Rod Graham  0:19  I think it's also important that people who don't share the experiences, who are not a person of color or not a woman, or they're not queer, exercise some humility.

Narrator  0:33  Many of us grew up under the impression that color blindness or pretending not to see racial differences was virtuous. An important contribution of critical race theory, however, is the recognition that the colorblind philosophy is tantamount to ignoring racial injustice. This week's guest on seachange radio, Dr. Rod Graham, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and a contributor to the editorial board espouses color consciousness over colorblindness. We discuss the racial divide in America, what bridge building across race might look like, and why majority rule cannot be counted on to advance the rights of a minority group.

Alex Wise  1:38  I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Rod Graham Rod is a professor at Old Dominion University in sociology and criminal justice. Rod, welcome to Sea Change Radio.

Rod Graham Hi, thanks for having me.

Alex Wise So you are one of the newer contributors to The Editorial Board, Sea Change Radio listeners will be familiar with The Editorial Board's founder John Stoehr who's been a frequent guest on the program. And you've been contributing quite a bit recently, I wanted to dive into a few of the race-related pieces that you've posted on The Editorial Board and use that as a jumping off point for a larger discussion.

Rod Graham Okay.

Alex Wise The title of one of your pieces is dialogue won't save America, but minor league baseball games and other group activities will that kind of struck me that idea of dialogue won't save America because we always say things like that we need to have a conversation about race. It's almost become a cliche to have this conversation about race. So here we are having a conversation about race, but why won't conversations alone save America Rod?

Rod Graham  3:01  Well, we form friendships with people through shared experiences and activities. So in order to come together as communities, we have to do things together. And an intellectual conversation about something is not going to do that. It doesn't mean that we can have those conversations. I mean, they're they're good for understanding another person's point of view. And it might humanize people when you have this, these conversations. But I think even the evidence suggests that when people do studies of this, that in order for people to start working together, they need to have some shared experiences. So that particular piece was not entirely about race, although it can be applied to race, it was just more it's the device of society we live in. And I think one of the reasons why that is is because people tend to associate with people just like them.
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