The color-blind approach to civil rights says that the race of a person should not be considered at all in viewing people. So, for example, when reporting a story about a police shooting of an apparently innocent victim, the race of neither the police officers involved nor that of the victim should be mentioned, let alone considered.
This color-blind approach, as far as I know, is a conservative ideological approach to civil rights. It is based on the claim that racial equality was achieved by the work of the Civil Rights Movement with the passing of laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That is because with the passing of Civil Rights legislation, we have equal treatment under the law And in answering their critics, promoters of the color-blind approach say that equal treatment under the law does not guarantee any specific outcomes.
Finally, because of his 'I Have A Dream Speech,' those who promote the color-blind approach believe that it is consistent with Martin Luther King's Jr. approach to civil rights by virtue of his dream that society would become color-blind. And that belief is the concern of this article.
In contrast to the color-blind approach, we have Critical Race Theory (CRT). And CRT teaches that racism is more than just individual racial prejudice, it also involves racial oppression from our nation's institutions and the manifestation of social power. And because of that, and what we see in society, say advocates of CRT, shows that we have yet to achieve racial equality. CRT relies on multiple influences including Marx and, as it claims, the work and words of Martin Luther King Jr. and others. CRT is an outgrowth of Critical Legal Studies (CLS).
The question here is which approach to civil rights is most consistent with King's approach to civil rights. Rather than me trying to answer that question, below is a link to an interview with King which occurred 11 months before he was assassinated. In other words, these are the views of King late in his career of activism and leadership. This interview came around 2 to 3 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Here we get to hear how King viewed civil rights and what is needed to combat racism and achieve equality. So here the listener to the interview gets to, in a more informed way, determine for themselves whether it is the color-blind approach or the CRT approach to viewing and achieving civil rights that is most consistent with King's approach to civil rights. The link to the interview is below:
Click here for the interview with Martin Luther King Jr.
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