Color Blindness

Mission Accomplished

In the post-civil rights era, commitment to the ideal of color blindness has facilitated the removal of barriers that had for generations blocked the entry of racial minorities into the mainstream economy and society. Legislatures and courts have employed the color-blind ideal to strike down the formal edifice of segregation and eradicate the most blatant manifestations of racial discrimination. In the United States, evidence suggests that public opinion overwhelmingly supports nondiscrimination and the ideal of racial equality, although favorable opinion on the part of Whites tends to waver over the appropriate political measures to pursue or defend the ideal.

Many African Americans also profess commitment to color blindness, but they are more prone to support government race-conscious efforts to achieve racial equality (such as affirmative action or school busing). Moreover, media advertisements, music videos, television, and other sites of popular culture are dominated by multiracial images of friendship and tolerance that celebrate the color-blind society. The ubiquity of support for the color-blind ideal has rendered illegitimate the denial of citizenship rights to people of color that was dominant just a half century ago.

Much internal debate exists, however, with regard to the precise meaning of color blindness and its implications for government policymaking. Some, especially the right wing of the political spectrum, argue that enforcement of nondiscrimination makes the playing field level and so represents the limit of state action. Any measure that violates the color-blind ideal, such as the color-conscious pursuit of poverty alleviation or employment opportunities, for example, represents illiberal race preferences or even “reverse racism,” they argue. Departure from the color-blind ideal is thought to promote racial divisiveness, inflict fresh harms on Whites (by denying equal protection of the laws), and stigmatize beneficiaries of color-conscious remedies such as affirmative action.

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