Is the Emphasis on a Color-Blind Society an Answer to Racism?

Is the Emphasis on a Color-Blind Society an Answer to Racism?

The emphasis on a color-blind society is an answer to racism in the world. The use skin color as a method of identification has caused groups of people to discriminate against others for centuries. Slavery in the United States took place due to the whites' belief in superiority over other races. Black people in America struggled for over 200 years due to the color of their skin and being defined as people of African descent. The caste system in India was based upon the color of Indian citizens' skin. The darker your skin was the lower on the rungs on the metaphorical ladder of the caste system you were. People of lighter skin color were able to be more successful and were guaranteed more opportunities because of their shade of brown. Indians and a plethora of other Asian citizens today still believe that having a lighter skin color is better and more attractive than a darker skin tone. These people believe that having a lighter skin tone will make you more successful in life. In today's society, the races are too intermingled for people to still define people by race and skin color. The majority of citizens in America today have descendants from all over the world who are composed of a conglomeration of DNA from all over the world. A color-blind society will help people with discrimination.

The need for a color-blind society can be seen best in America where the unique and one-of-a-kind mixture of cultures is only present there. The capture of Africans and enslavement of them for hundreds of years exemplifies the separation of races because of skin color. Even after African Americans were released from slavery, they were subject to years of segregation. Black and whites could not drink from the same water fountain, were murdered in cold blood by members of the white community. In order to create a white dominion over society, whites created Jim Crow laws which prevented African Americans from voting and separated African Americans from whites. These laws restricted the rights and civil liberties of African Americans. Examples of these laws included literacy tests even though the newly freed slaves were unable to read, requiring African Americans to use separate facilities from whites, and the skewed justice system present at the time which favored whites heavily over blacks.

A lighter skin tone in society has been favored over a darker skin tone for the longest time. I remember one occasion of this occurring when I was in high school. It was my sophomore year and I was sitting in the front of my Human Geography class. We were discussing how skin color has affected world interactions. A Guyanese girl from Indian descent joined the discussion by raising her hand. She told the class about how her grandmother had not seen her in several years and was commenting about her appearance. Due to the sunny Florida climate, she