Racial inequality provokes passionate opinions and varied ideas of how to build a fair, equitable society. One topic that's been contentiously debated for generations is color blindness: the concept that we should look beyond race when thinking about equity. In this talk, writer and podcast host Coleman Hughes makes a case in favor of the idea, sharing why he thinks the key to reducing inequality and easing racial tensions is replacing race-based policies with class-based ones.
TED welcomes a variety of perspectives on the issues that shape our world. To capture another viewpoint on the idea of color blindness, TED partnered with the nonpartisan media group Open to Debate, bringing together Coleman Hughes with New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie to debate the question: "Does color blindness perpetuate racism?"
Watch the debate via Part 2.
Watch Coleman's video reaction to what happened after the talk via Part 3.
It seems to me that everyone in the @coldxman @TEDTalks saga are missing out on the fact that what Coleman actually advocated for instead of race based polices was real, cold, hard, good old fashion equity for people who simply do not have access to financial capital and that the real marker of inequality is poor people not having capital. - Chloé S. Valdary