Colorblindness has its roots in white settler colonialism over Native Americans, including the schools they made them go to. This helped settlers assert their claim to these lands.

That’s why it’s not as common in the south, where it was important to hilight race to assert control over black people.

The historical context of race is what still affects people to this day.

I think ethnicity and intersectionality are a better thing to focus on when around others (more socially acceptable and less threatening/charged), along with individual experience. Race is just one way to look at somebody but there’s many many other layers and they all work together.