Race-blind - Definition and Overview

Race-blind is a term describing activities undertaken and services provided without regard to the racial characteristics of those who participate in an activity or receive a service.

In race-blind operations, there is no use of racial data. An example of this would be a college processing admissions without regard to or knowledge of the racial characteristics of applicants [1] (http://www.alumni.berkeley.edu/Alumni/Cal_Monthly/September_2003/Race-blind_admissions-_a_progress_report.asp). Various approaches have been tried to remove any impact of race, for example one based on lottery drawing to determine school allocations.

This equal opportunity approach contrasts with positive discrimination or affirmative action that would actively attempt to favour those people considered to have been disadavantaged by historical racial prejudice, or whose racial group might otherwise be considered under-represented, for example in a university [2] (http://www.adversity.net/FRAMES/Editorials/51_UMichigan_Quotas.htm).

Mandatory affirmative action in race-blind operations has been criticised as symptomatic of a fundamentally racist society [3] (http://www.timshelarts.com/dustinthelight/archives/00001980.htm). There is a variety of opinions about whether or not such criticism is justified; some people think this is all taken too seriously [4] (http://www.cornelldailysun.com/articles/9543/).

See also

• gender-blind.

External links

• Affirmative Access vs. Affirmative Action: How have Texas's race-blind policies affected college outcomes? (http://www.utdallas.edu/research/greenctr/Papers/pdfpapers/paper33.html)
• Can Race-blind Policies Produce a Diverse Student Body? (http://www.system.missouri.edu/planning/reports/diverse.pdf)
• Race-blind lottery chooses fewer blacks for magnet schools (http://www.tennessean.com/sii/99/04/01/magnet01.shtml)
• A Look at Color-Blindness (http://www-tech.mit.edu/V122/N3/col122-3ph.3c.html)