I Don’t See Color

Helen Hensell
5 min readMay 15, 2022
Photo by pawel szvmanski on Unsplash

After years of being subjected to racial taunts, I knew one thing that I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to see color. Even today, I want to say that I don’t see color. But then, particularly in light of the most recent racial events, this phrase “I don’t see color” has come under fire. Many people accuse someone who says such a thing as denying everything that the color of the skin represents. And some even call them a racist.

Am I being racist?

When I say that I don’t see color, I am not being a racist. Or at least, I am not trying to be. To clarify, I say I don’t see color because I don’t want to look at the color of someone’s skin and then let all of these judgments and stereotypes define that person. As a mixed-race person in America, I have had people do the same to me and it never felt good. I have had people look at me and assume one thing over another, and then would fall through the cascade of stereotypes that I was expected to have. I didn’t like that feeling and I knew I did not want to subject other people to the same treatment.

That is how I internalized my own feelings of how I felt when I was judged. I just wanted everyone to be equal, no matter where their ancestors came from, what they believed, or what kind of person they chose to be. It’s never a good feeling when you go out and people assume one thing over another, when in reality that…

--

--

Helen Hensell

she/her I am a writer, blogger, social media specialist, mom, survivor. Follow me for more