Color Blindness (race) In The United States
Color blindness (sometimes spelled colour-blindness; also called race blindness) is a sociological term referring to the disregard of racial characteristics when selecting which individuals will participate in some activity or receive some service.
As described by Chief Justice Roberts,"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race, is to stop discriminating on the basis of race"
Put into practice, color-blind operations use no racial data or profiling and make no classifications, categorizations, or distinctions based upon race. An example of this would be a college processing admissions without regard to or knowledge of the racial characteristics of applicants.
In the 1960s landmark civil rights legislation's goal was to remove racial discrimination and so establish a race-blind standard. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, that the hope was that people would be judged by "the content of their character" rather than "the color of their skins".
This article deals with the United States.
The term is sometimes also used in a non-political sense; for example, love is often described as colorblind.
Read more about Color Blindness (race) In The United States: Support of Color Blindness, Criticism of Color Blindness
Famous quotes containing the words color, blindness, united and/or states:
“‘Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
“Their color is a diabolic die.”
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.”
—Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753–1784)
“... that great blindness which we are all under in respect to our own selves.”
—Molière [Jean Baptiste Poquelin] (1622–1673)
“We are told to maintain constitutions because they are constitutions, and what is laid down in those constitutions?... Certain great fundamental ideas of right are common to the world, and ... all laws of man’s making which trample on these ideas, are null and void—wrong to obey, right to disobey. The Constitution of the United States recognizes human slavery; and makes the souls of men articles of purchase and of sale.”
—Anna Elizabeth Dickinson (1842–1932)
“Our citizenship in the United States is our national character. Our citizenship in any particular state is only our local distinction. By the latter we are known at home, by the former to the world. Our great title is AMERICANS—our inferior one varies with the place.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)