Color Consciousness in America: Unveiling Complexities, Media Portrayals, and Solutions - Paper Example

Introduction

In America, racial relations are not only considered to be dynamic processes but are also linked to the political struggles of the nation. The term color consciousness is used about a concept that helps people understand how groups within the society are formed and maintained. This concept highlights the collective cohesion and its relation to a dominant power structure. Color Consciousness often exists among a colonized or subordinated group in society (Mandik). In the United States, African American communities are the most affected by this concept. The families of African Americans serve to counter racism as well as to perpetuate Color Consciousness.

Media review

Several media presentations cover the issue of color consciousness. These media include hidden colors, imitation of life, and race: the power of illusion. Hidden Colors is a film based on the untold history of Blacks, aboriginal, and moor (Herbes-Sommers et al.). This media covers the issue of color consciousness by attempting to deconstruct white supremacy.

Imitation of life is a 1959 film depicting four people living a life beyond their control (Sirk). Questions from the female's perspective are dealt with within the first half of the film, whereas the second half covers how color consciousness has affected Black women. Race: the power of illusion covers color consciousness in its first episode when Asian American and African American students sequence and compare their DNA.

The effect of color consciousness

In imitation of life, two friends, Claudette Colbert, a white woman, and Louise Beavers, an African American woman, illustrated color consciousness through single parenthood (Sirk). In this film, the story is about imitating, where people pretend to be individuals who they are not. Hidden colors illustrate color consciousness by tracing the Black community's history back to ancient African civilization (Nasheed). The film examines the attempts made by the whites to the African American identity. In the race: the power of illusion, when the athletes and string players compare their DNA, they are surprised to find out their closest genetic matches are not with people from the same “race” as theirs.

Solutions to color consciousness

The first solution to color consciousness is to ignore the race of people of color. Secondly, it is important not to take abuses. Every individual, regardless of his/her race or nationality, is entitled a right to live a happy life free from discrimination. For a person who feels as though he/she is color-conscious, such an individual needs to speak out and let people know his/her feeling. One should be able to raise discussion on this matter freely. The third solution of color consciousness is by keeping records. One should document things that happen and share with other people while discussing how they are affected and what support they might be needing.

Conclusion

Color consciousness is, in no doubt, a harmful manner of viewing the world. That is because it causes people to ignore the realities of racism in the modern United States. People hence start opposing certain policies that might have efficiently addressed racial inequalities. Color consciousness might also be problematic when people only recognize Black people's race while ignoring white people. That would hence reinforce white normative. Politically, color consciousness destroys the neutrality and centrality of witnesses, giving racial groups more input and visibility.

Work Cited

Mandik, Pete. "Color-Consciousness Conceptualism." Consciousness And Cognition, vol 21, no. 2, 2012, pp. 617-631. Elsevier BV, doi:10.1016/j.concog.2010.11.010.

Herbes-Sommers, Christine et al. "Race: The Power Of An Illusion (TV Series 2003– ) - Imdb". IMDb, 2020, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0445897/.

Sirk, Douglas. "Imitation Of Life (1959) - Imdb". IMDb, 2020, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052918/.

Nasheed, Tariq. "Hidden Colors (2011) - Imdb". Imdb, 2020, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1857724/.