Seeing A Colorblind Future Analysis

In Patricia Williams' book Seeing a Colorblind Future: The Paradox of Race there was an instance of everyday racism that took place on a train. The incident she spoke of was that she was on a train heading from New York to Washington D.C. with two of her black colleagues. They were heading to a lawyers convention and when the train stopped in Philadelphia, PA a young white female entered the train and sat in the same row as them. She was a heading to the same convention as them. Not long after the conductor came and saw the four people but only three ticket stubs. The new female held up her ticket to show the conductor but he did not see her. Then he said “One of you hasn't paid” 1then he proceeded by staring at Patricia and her two black colleagues. Someone else on the train even said “Over there” but he did not hear them either. Then he asked “Which one of you hasn't paid?” then the other woman clearly said to the conductor

One idea he spoke of was subjectivism. Subjectivism is the idea that right or wrong actions depend on what you think.4 Race is based on what your idea of the universe is. In other words the concept of right or wrong depends on your perspective of the world. So from the perspective of the conductor he must have thought that in the goodness of his heart that one of the black passengers in those seats really did not pay. He thought he was giving fair justice based on the ideals and principles he was taught were true. Though in reality to everyone else in that train car what he did was the complete opposite. He soon came to realize the truth after he was faced with the result of his mistake. The second idea partially related to the train ticket incident was the idea of error theory. Meaning that there is no social or biological importance of race yet it is used to determine how people live their