"Overwhelming blackness can be considered good when it’s self-imposed and embraced as a facet of oneself; it can become the framework for who a person is without totally defining themselves as such. When a black person describes themselves as a such, they fully recognizes that this does not limit their personhood. Inversely, too often when a non-black person sees a black person as Black, they are forever seen as Black and nothing more. It suddenly becomes difficult to discern Blackness from multifaceted personhood. In an effort to seem less racist, many Americans embraced “colorblindness” because if they can’t fathom that a Black Person might enjoy Tchaikovsky or—better yet—be sentient, the concept of race itself must be the problem...
Jodie is the extremely accurate black equivalent to Daria—just as perceptive but isn’t allowed the privilege of being imperfect because she, as a token, unofficially represents all blacks to her myopic community."
It is all very overwhelming. Oh, the mixed messages of the 90s and early 2000s. And always.
Related: negative impacts of colorblindness
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