A colorblind world

Colorblindness is a noun that has several meanings that vary based of it contexts. It could mean a vision deficiency, which is the decreased ability to see color or differences in color. This definition refers to the complete inability to distinguish colors of the spectrum. To the naked eye, objects only appear as shades of gray, black, and white, while the shades may vary depending on lightness and darkness. Color blindness, in a cultural context can also be referred to as race blindness. This is a sociological term indicates the disregard of racial characteristics when making a conscious or unconscious decision. Typically, color-blind operations such employment, including: hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, trainings or benefits use no racial data or profiling and make no classifications, categorizations, or distinctions based upon race. In fact, the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (library of Congress). Although the amendment was ratified in 1870, it still took decades for all states to recognize and obey the law. Almost forty years later the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, also known as the NAACP, was formed to ensure the “political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination” (NAACP.org). The NAACP stands today as the nation’s oldest, largest and most widely recognized civil rights organization.

January 2009, President Barack Obama signed his first piece of legislation into law, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. This bill on wage discrimination had been on the NAACP’s priority list since 2007 when the US Supreme Court handed down the case of Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.