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Also, Black Osprey brought up the idea of colorblindness - which is a beautiful approach in theory, but the problem usually comes down to people already pretend like it exists and unfortunately, we do not live in a world where racism is gone, or for that matter oppression over various minorities.
I can't speak too much for people of color, but when someone says to me "I don't see you as gay! I don't pay attention to that stuff, it's not important to me! I see you as a person", what they usually mean to come across is: "your gayness doesn't affect the way I see you" but in reality, it comes off as "I won't let your oppression get in the way of me seeing you like everyone else."
If you ignore someone's struggle, then you're not helping to stop it and you're not helping to normalize who they are and what they face. Instead, the best approach on both ends would be, I do see you as X, I acknowledge the situations you're in, even if I can't always understand them, I celebrate you as a person and want to make sure you're happy and safe.
And unfortunately, by "ignoring" race, all that really happens is that you automatically make everything that grey blob world from the Fairly Odd Parents, because the highest race on the totem pole becomes the default, and as a result, every time you pick up a book, if the character isn't explicitly given a race, you're conditioned to read them as white. Instead of worrying about who's on top of that pole, or whether a fucking comic book character started off as straight - (also, arguing over straight X-men or a SJW agenda at Marvel is LAUGHABLE considering the entire series is a metaphor for being LGBT and other societal "outsiders") consider, instead, confronting the system that made these things default in the first place.
I can't speak too much for people of color, but when someone says to me "I don't see you as gay! I don't pay attention to that stuff, it's not important to me! I see you as a person", what they usually mean to come across is: "your gayness doesn't affect the way I see you" but in reality, it comes off as "I won't let your oppression get in the way of me seeing you like everyone else."
If you ignore someone's struggle, then you're not helping to stop it and you're not helping to normalize who they are and what they face. Instead, the best approach on both ends would be, I do see you as X, I acknowledge the situations you're in, even if I can't always understand them, I celebrate you as a person and want to make sure you're happy and safe.
And unfortunately, by "ignoring" race, all that really happens is that you automatically make everything that grey blob world from the Fairly Odd Parents, because the highest race on the totem pole becomes the default, and as a result, every time you pick up a book, if the character isn't explicitly given a race, you're conditioned to read them as white. Instead of worrying about who's on top of that pole, or whether a fucking comic book character started off as straight - (also, arguing over straight X-men or a SJW agenda at Marvel is LAUGHABLE considering the entire series is a metaphor for being LGBT and other societal "outsiders") consider, instead, confronting the system that made these things default in the first place.