Colorblindness and Its Problematics

Abstract

The colorblind project, as the new way of thinking about race relations in the United States, aims to render the United States blind to its racial truths and obliterate the racial discrimination on which America’s history is based. W. E. B. Du Bois’s warning that the problem of the twentieth century would be that the problem of the color line1 has not dissipated. In fact, the color line, or the racial divide, has now shifted to take on new meanings.2 So what we can learn about race history in the United States continues to be central to critical race theorists and black feminists.3 Accordingly, the US history of race and racial thinking must be confronted to assess its negative impact on blacks and other nonwhites. With the implementation of antidiscrimination laws and race-conscious affirmative-action programs, the liberal state tries to address the unequal position of blacks and other nonwhites. Nonetheless, the efforts by the state to tackle racial inequality through its race-conscious affirmative-action programs, for example, did not result in the defeat or transformation of the system of racism in place to benefit whites. In fact, it created a backlash that led many whites to see themselves as the victims of “reverse discrimination” or “preferential treatment.”