Racism in America has evolved since the era of lynching, superpredators, and public Klu Klux Klan ceremonies, although these events continue to flourish in some corners of society today. In most areas, dominant and privileged demographics are not allowed to violently and outwardly persecute a minority group, allowing the narrative to persist that we live in a “post-racial society”. If this is the case, how do discrimination and racism manage to persist in America? The perpetuation of racism in society today has been duplicitous and cunning. Many people wish to erase the impacts race relations have had on minority groups under the guise of becoming “color-blind”, which is to ignore race when interacting with others, resulting in the erasure of people’s differences and ignorance of the atrocities privileged groups in America have caused in history and continue to benefit from. This social behavior limits our awareness of others and perpetuates other forms of racism, and allows them to go unnoticed. Instead of adopting color blindness, privileged people should be learning how to see past their implicit biases and embrace the differences that make the human race beautiful. In essence, to improve acceptance of diversity in society, the solution is not creating a society that is “post-race”, but one that is “post-racism”. This means many things to many different people, but to eliminate racism in a country built on chattel slavery, mass incarceration, and a genocidal theft of Turtle Island is to address and reverse the racist history our nation is built on. 

To achieve a society that is “post-racism”, social interactions must value accepting diversity, not ignoring it. First, the meaning of diversity must be established, because diversity exists in multiple forms apart from race. In terms of ability and appearance, discrimination occurs in modern society, and this discrimination has intersections in certain individuals: For someone who identifies as both a woman and black, they must endure discrimination based on both gender and race in their social interactions- not separate race and gender discrimination, but a layered experience special to black woman- this is the case with every intersecting identity. This is the root of the saying, “We’re not free until everyone is free”- if a black liberation movement is anti-LGBTQ, they are leaving black-LGBTQ behind, if an effort for women’s liberation is anti-black, they are leaving black women behind, etc etc etc. This all points to the message that every movement is tied, and no movement should be single issue. This is how diversity should be celebrated. 

In order to minimize the presence of racism in modern society, there must be value placed in embracing diversity in social, spiritual, and political discourse. If we choose to ignore our differences and become “color blind”, the negative impacts of racism will be more readily forgotten, and the presence of implicit biases and internalized racism will go unchecked. To encourage the awareness of others, discussion and open-mindedness should be valued instead of the pacifying ideas of living in a society free from race or differences.

These conversations can be uncomfortable, especially through the process of recognizing your own racial biases, but they are necessary. Being that power and privilege can be seen in every aspect of human life- even in how someone can control a conversation, unpacking where you fall in this system is a daily process. This isn’t just about the comfort of people- it’s about the livelihood of people of color in this country- applying for a mortgage loan, being a priority patient in a hospital, being tried as an adult instead of a minor, being pulled over for a traffic violation, being hired for a job- these and many more are everyday processes that are jeopardized when a person is black in this country, and it is the responsibility of privileged people to ensure that they are not contributing to these lived experiences.