Color-Blind Perspective

The color-blind perspective is a point of view arguing that racial group membership is never pertinent to the assessment of individuals' abilities and achievements or to the opportunities that should be made available them. Taken even further, the color-blind perspective is sometimes extended to include the claim that individuals and/or organizations do not even notice racial group membership, which logically suggests that they could not be taking it into account. Indeed, from the color-blind perspective, taking account of race is closely identified with racism, either in its traditional form or in a “reverse” form in which a previously disadvantaged group is unfairly advantaged. The rationale behind the color-blind perspective is that considering race in individual decision making or organizational functioning, [Page 406]whether to disadvantage a ...