ABSTRACT
This chapter examines equal protection and the advent of colour-blindness, when one doctrine, discriminatory intent, applied to both express and non-express uses of race. It explains the heretofore unrecognized symbiosis between colour-blindness and intent: colour-blindness arose in response to intent doctrine, as applied to affirmative action; and colour-blindness impelled intent doctrine toward a monocular focus on malice. The chapter traces the rise and application of malicious intent across the 1980s, reconsidering the actual operation of malice doctrine to offer a damning indictment heretofore missing from the literature. It seeks instead to understand the present and near future by revising understanding of the past. The chapter offers a new conception of the relationship between discriminatory intent doctrine and colour-blindness. Finally, it brings the analysis up to the present, demonstrating the consolidation of intent and colour-blindness after the 1990s. Once embraced as a way of thinking about equality, colour-blindness both legitimized and impelled a highly restrictive approach to proving discrimination against nonwhites.
