Memo to Rush: Continuing to call yourself "colorblind" doesn't make it so

Maybe Rush doesn't know that he is a true 'racist' because of his Republican, Conservative, and Right-Winged friends and followers he surrounds himself with, LOL.

Good point Pilgrim,

Liberals are more able to honestly assess their own shortcomings and see the big picture.

Conservatives simply lie to try to cover their arse.

Maybe there's some grain of truth to the idea that some degree of reticence over "the other" (however you might define that) is instinctive in human nature. Maybe it's a vestige of evolution because it helped early humans survive.

However, what separates us from animals is our ability to override our primitive instincts using logic and higher intelligence. Otherwise, we'd be going around humping everything that moved and using each other as sources of food.

Agreed.
It's funny. I like to think of myself as a very open-minded individual, but even then, I have to actively remind myself that I am making assumptions or generalizations on occasion. They are never malicious, but they are little things I struggle with in my sub-conscious. I try to be aware of them as much as possible, but it's hard to overcome what 21 years of indoctrination and the media has done to a girl. As a result, I tend to dislike white people more than black people to compensate for what I feel is unequal racial treatment in this nation. I do not want any part of what I feel generations of bigotry have upheld as legitimate, but consequently I am being inadvertently racist.
It's mind-boggling to figure out how to actually be "colorblind", but the best way to progress is to openly talk about racism with one another. However, Rush's comments essentially suggest that racism does not exist, and therefore, there is no need to discuss it.
Yes, it's an uncomfortable subject, but the more people can talk about their feelings of inadequacy or inherent prejudices with eachother then the more people will realize that each race/religion/gender/nation/culture has a lot more in common than we could have ever imagined. We are all human. We are all connected. We must love and protect one another.
Does anyone else feel the same way? Or am I a lone wolf?

"Actually, I don't think the human race is wired to be colorblind. When we see people of a different color than our own, we notice it at some level. And this doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, to notice the differences in skin color."

With respect, I would disagree on a small point. I hear you, but I think you're being a bit too literal about Limbaugh's use of the term "colorblind" when you say that humans are not "wired to be colorblind". Of course human beings notice physical differences: they notice differences in ratios of facial features and hair types and bone structure and all sorts of physical differences, but that has next to nothing to do with race. It's important to distinguish physical differences in general from the very specific notion of race. Race has as much to do with skin color as it does to do with qualities of hair and facial structure, and the category of race is and always has been highly historically and culturally arbitrary.

I would emphatically argue that there's no evidence whatsoever to suggest that the human race is somehow "wired" to be aware of race -- especially since race isn't even a biologically recognizable category among humans. Race is a category that emerged at a specific time and in a specific social and cultural context. People have been and always will be capable of being aware of physical differences, but it was a particular historical and social setting that gave rise to the notion of racial difference.

Now, with that said, I agree with you insofar as I understand your point to be that people born in a society with specific racial categories will be aware of those racial categories, since those are categories of identity. But I just want to voice my concern about the idea that people are "wired" to recognize "color" or race: there's nothing natural about claiming that the Irish are a race one century but not the next. Race is, however, a very real social thing -- as real as social constructs like law or language -- and for a person to claim that he or she is unaware of it is, I think, unrealistic.

wzwriter, best statement yet about LIMBAUGH.

Must be stealing the concept from Through The Looking Glass....
`When _I_ use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'

`The question is,' said Alice, `whether you CAN make words mean so many different things.'

`The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master - - that's all.'

Actually I have to agree with el Fathead on this one...

He is colorblind.

How are you going to see any color when your head is that far up your ass?

A gem of a comment Ruby, thanks.

Amen.

And he said this when?

For which quote or statement specifically would you like a citation?