Beat The Drum

What Color?

Shhh, haven’t you heard, there are no communities of color, we’re all the same, maybe a shade of indefinable gray, but nonetheless the same?

Boston-based United for a Fair Economy writes, the Great Recession “has pulled the plug on communities of color, draining jobs and homes from families that were already in crisis.” The operative description here is that they were already in crisis. It is not possible for a poor economy to retroactively cause a loss of jobs and homes already in trouble—there’s no magic sleight of hand at work, we must accept many things in life that are unpleasant.

Why, we continually ask, is there such a hue and cry about color? A recession can’t see color, and it affects everyone, those already in crises, and those for whom the crisis is new. Heaven forbid colored communities (that don’t exist—because we can no longer see them; no one wants us to see or refer to them without a due apology) should suffer the same problems the rest of us indefinable grays must face: loss of jobs, loss of homes, savings, and retirement accounts, the inability to buy medicine or pay for fuel to heat our homes. It’s time to shhh, because it happens to everyone—even those living in a world without color. Some would say that 30% of those unemployed are black; as if it’s the most terrible thing. But, not to trivialize it, that means that 70% of those other unemployed are white or gray.

We are either going to talk about color or we are not; it’s very confusing when a group wants no special treatment on the one hand and then demands better than equal treatment on the other. It’s very hypocritical and unflattering to do so. So, shhh.