22 Comments

  1. I LOVE THIS. I have always felt that to say that we don’t see color or that God doesn’t see color is crazy and a lie. First of God created color and it is beautiful. Thanks for your post. It’s awesome. I’m coming back for a re read and a share. You Go Girl!

    • Thank you Rosemerry. I always do the head tilt like a little puppy when people say that to me. No, we see color and it’s perfectly fine. It’s how you treat the person that matters.

  2. I agree. People who claim to be color blind just aren’t open to the conversation. Thank you for this honest post. We definitely do need more conversation like this.

  3. Love this. This has been a topic at our church for the past 2 weeks. I grew up in a home where my parents taught me to get along with people of all races. How you conveyed this was on point. I guess being in church and when I realized what the message was about the second go round, I was like I don’t want to hear this again. I kinda blocked it all out because I was like it didn’t apply to me.

    What I’ve realized over the past few days and even in reading your post, everyone doesn’t have the same view point. So, it is a discussion which definitely needs to be had.

    • I chuckled at you saying not wanting to hear this again. I was the same way. I used to be like…ohhhh….here we go again, but there have been some things that have happened that made me realize I needed to speak out. And so many I’ve met over the years are terrified to describe someone’s skin color. Thanks for taking the time to hear it again. 🙂

  4. Leslie

    One of my first jobs as a bank teller required going thru drills of what to do during a robbery. We would be quickly shown a pic, then have it removed for you to recall what you saw in the photo. Well it isnt enough to just say male in a blue shkrt, if you were to describe to the police by description . It is more detailed to advise color of skin. So yes I see color too just from an awareness point of view.

  5. I love your approach to this topic. I agree. I SEE skin color as well. It’s natural and inevitable. Yet it doesn’t matter. The person is what makes the impact for me – not their color.

    • Thank you. We all see skin color. People can say they don’t see it all day long, but we do. I’m going to touch more on this and hopefully, it will bring conversation and understanding amongst people.

  6. LaTonya Crisp

    Well put Sybil! However, I hate to be the only person with an opposing opinion, but my own cultural experiences, have made me not necessarily disagree, but definitely not agree. Obviously, I do see skin color, and while I do judge each person for who they are individually, I am also aware of the underlying reality that your heritage always matters. As oblivious most may be, when I watch my television, I see about 80% (guesstimation) of people who look nothing like me. At least 15% of the people who do look like me, are NOTHING like me or anyone where I’m from. Then the 5% who are like me or where I’m from, have attitudes/demeanors/lifestyles so exaggerated, that it’s super hard to relate. As a “black” (which I prefer not to be called considering I am actually more of a tannish sandy reddish tone… caramel) Hebrew woman, living in this world, I feel that as a culture we are always reminded of how insignificant we are, despite our continued contributions to the WORLD as we know it, we are often times viewed as aggressive or as someone to be feared and contained. Fact of the matter is, me personally speaking, color/race/culture/heritage will always matter. As beautiful as is sounds to say it doesn’t, it does! Not a rule I made, just a world I was born in to. As taught in Sunday school as a young kid, it’s always best to treat each person as you would want them to treat you, your parents, grandparents and your kids. Last thing, if you don’t speak up in situations of inequality, no matter where it’s coming from, you too are the problem. Prayers to anyone affected by Hurricane Harvey, God bless!

    • And those are points I will touch on as I continue with this topic. Hubby and I just had the conversation the other day about watching TV and what do our kids see portrayed as being black. There’s only one black show I can think of at this moment that shows a healthy family dynamic and that is Blackish. The other shows with black Americans are about fast money, women, drugs. The color of one’s skin doesn’t make treat them any less of a human being. I hope you subscribed so you can follow the rest of my posts about this topic because trust me…I’m going to dig a bit deeper.

  7. Brilliant discussion. So many people are afraid to speak in color in fear of being labeled racist. My kids have been taught to see people before skin color but I like the way you look at people.

  8. It’s great that you posted about this. People who say they don’t see color are cause more damage than they know. If you don’t see color how can you identify that someone was being treated in a racist way? How can you have statistics on how many black people are murdered by police? If you don’t see color you cannot go further.

  9. Heather

    Very insightful… to say otherwise would be disingenuous. When it comes down to it, it’s how you handle it. Thanks for sharing

  10. April Hake

    It’s so funny, because moving to Japan, I was more scared of your husband being an officer & we being an enlisted family because I had never “mixed” with officers wives before LOL!!
    I think it’s labels that get in the way of getting to know people.

    I grew up in an area of Kentucky where black people stayed with black people and white people stayed with white people and you really didn’t mix with one another.

    Growing up in the 1980s & 90s, before having kids (lol), I was a skinny white girl (I swear my son stole my metabolism). In middle school, black guys would hit on me & black girls would get angry that the black guys were hitting on me (I wasn’t interested in them or any boy for that matter, but that didn’t matter). The girls would get aggressive and they wanted to fight me and I don’t (or didn’t) like confrontation at ALL!!! I was very intimidated and they knew it!! Now I consider myself more passive-aggressive, I just don’t care for drama!!

    It wasn’t until we moved to San Diego in 2010 and moved next to Marine SSgt Daniel Craig (we’d always joke that he’s the black James Bond…..lol) & Family that I was able to REALLY get to know a person of color and I love her like a sister & her kids & husband (well he’s tolerated……lol).

    I mean I’ve had co-workers of all races, but never really got overly close to any one person, at least not like I did with my bestie Tamica or you & others while in Japan!

    I’m like you, in that yes, I do see color, but it doesn’t mean I’m automatically gonna like or dislike you. Now there are black people I don’t like just like there are white people (some even family members) who I don’t like at all!! LOL

    Girl! I love you to pieces!! You are truly one of a kind!!!!

    • I’m sitting here cracking up. Cause I remember when we first met and you said Kentucky. I was like…Awwww…..DAMN!!!! I can’t even deal with a Wildcat. ROFL I’m just me at ALL times. We all see color, but not judging others because of it is what is important.

Comments are closed.