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Pros And Cons Of Being Color-Blind

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“You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, and do as your desire, and choose the leaders as you please. You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, you are free to compete with all of the others.’ And still justly believe that you have been completely fair. Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates (Katznelson, 2006). President Lyndon Johnson spoke these words at Howard University’s commencement in 1965. It was shortly before blacks could vote, and just after passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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When operating a private company, there is less pressure to adhere to the norms of society (being color-conscious rather than color-blind, or even showing preference for one particular group. The language under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states that it is “unlawful for employers to even classify individuals by protected class status (42 u.S.C. Sect. 2000e-2b). In other words, they must ignore the race or other distinguishing characteristic unrelated to performance (e.g. sex or religion). Despite this, preference is occasionally given and is not illegal in some cases. The organization cannot terminate one employee to hire another, and that the preference given must “not serve to maintain racial, gender, and/or ethnic balance, but merely to eliminate a manifest imbalance – it must be temporary in nature” (Robinson, Seydel, & Ceasar …show more content…

But racism and ethnocentrism occurs everywhere, whether purposeful or not. Saginaw, Michigan; Flint, Michigan; and Detroit, Michigan are considered some highly segregated areas in the Midwest concerning black and white individuals. In cities where car production was a big economic factor, education was not as favorable as skill, and those high-paying jobs were given more often to white men than anybody else. It does seem to have been necessary for those times, to ensure a Catch-22 did not ensue. How can people who have had no training be given training? By being given the first chance to learn. Affirmative action was discredited again by Presidents Reagan and Bush administrations in the 1980’s (Agocs and Burr, 1996). President Clinton, originally from the Midwest and Southern states, faced some controversy by bringing his support behind the affirmative action policies in the

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