What was February like at Hillsdale College? Like anywhere else, we recognized and talked about Valentine’s Day, midterms, and the frigid weather. However, unlike most colleges, there existed a notable absence of discussion concerning the celebration (or lack thereof) of Black History Month. The most celebratory items on campus were the posters of Frederick Douglass that have been promoting the Journalism program since last semester.
Hillsdale College was the first institution of higher education in the country to prohibit discrimination based on race, sex, and religion. This was an integral part of the college charter in 1844. In 1956, the football team refused to play in the Tangerine Bowl because black players were not allowed on the field. Considering Hillsdale College’s history of championing the value of minorities and their contributions, it is odd that there exists no formal recognition of minorities to be found anywhere on campus or in the college’s core curriculum.
Refusing to acknowledge minority history as distinct establishes a dangerous precedent for viewing all cultural minorities — blacks, hispanics, asians, LGBTQ persons, women, the working class, and many others — as part of the dominant group. When we fail to recognize the accomplishments of racial minorities separate from those of the majority, we begin to ignore the advantages and disadvantages brought about by racial differences against the background of society.
A lot of people might ask, “What’s wrong with seeing minorities as the same as everyone else?” Another common way to phrase this sentiment specific to race is to say, “I see a person, not a color.” Indeed, it seems that the end state of racial equality would be a post-racial society where everyone is equal and race doesn’t matter. What’s the problem with that?
The problem is that race is a social construct, reified, deeply ingrained in our culture. That is, our social relations based on cultural-political boundaries and the color of our skin have been made real and are now a prevalent component of social reality. Race has permeated culture such that we can hardly imagine what it would be like to truly and objectively disregard race altogether. Focusing only on the micro level neglects this structural and institutional discrimination that minorities face. While a post-racial society is the ideal end-state, it is fallacious to pretend that we have it now or that we can achieve it now simply by speaking it.
Acting “colorblind,” however, operates under the very assumption that we are already in a post-racial society. The reality is that, in our own society, whiteness as a racial construct remains the standard and privileged position while colored-ness remains marginal — all while we deny that any of us are individually racist. It is because of this that we must recognize the accomplishments of minorities as their own. That’s why it is important to celebrate Black History Month. Without it, we’re perpetuating the problem of race by saying that we aren’t.
