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Can "colorblindness" and racism coexist? It's a question that challenges a common stance among the millennial generation, getting to the heart of arguments over race and class.

 consider their generation to be "post-racial" and aspire to a "colorblind" society.  

 this stance conveniently ignores the roots of race-based inequality in the country -- in effect denying that race continues to be a factor in individual outcomes. 

"It leads us astray when it comes to crafting public policy," he said on The Daily Circuit. "If you look at pretty much any problem in American life, from education disparities to income inequality, you'll find an extremely strong racial dimension that stems from our legacy of racism, of institutionalized racism. When we apply color-blindness to the arena of public policy, what ends up happening is we can't actually address the disparities."

Only about 20 percent of millennials say they are comfortable talking about racial bias. 

"My concern is that we have this generation of voters who don't seem to get that, who seem to think if we simply ignore not just race but if we ignore racism, we will be able to fix it," he said.

But listeners said the issue is much more complex than that for millennials.

Minneapolis caller on 'color-blind' millennials by MPR News

Some other contributions from the audience:

https://twitter.com/elguante/status/481822248253149187

https://twitter.com/rinakrack/status/481825326821961729

https://twitter.com/rinakrack/status/481825712387551233

 in covering the issue earlier this year:

 Do you think racism and colorblindness can coexist? Do we need to heighten our dialogue on race in America? Leave your comments below. 

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Can 'colorblindness' and racism coexist? It's a question that challenges a common stance among the millennial generation, getting to the heart of arguments over race and class.

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