ABSTRACT

This chapter reviews the Supreme Court’s colorblind jurisprudence since Brown v. Board of Education and argues that its uptake of racial issues is a refraction of American society’s problematic ‘colorblind’ imagination of race and its general unwillingness to confront the material realities of racial stratification and subordination. It also introduces the concept of colorblindness both as a legal doctrine and popular social discourse on race and racism. Colorblindness, at best, views racial problems with ambivalence, and at worst, dismisses the existence of racism altogether. Post Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, US society entered the ‘colorblind’ era of race relations. For race positive advocates who campaign for racially conscious policies in education, government, employment, and other civil institutions, the Court’s assault on race positive considerations in public policy has been relentless.