Color Blind Society When Giving His \"I

Color Blind Society

When giving his "I Have a Dream" speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. said that he hoped that one day men would be judged by the quality of his character rather than the color of his skin. This is the ideal that was expressed approximately fifty years ago, but has not yet been realized. In present society, men and women like to believe that they are viewed for their character. However, there is still a great disparity between the way people of one race are viewed and the way that members of another race are viewed. There is still a minority and majority differentiation. The concept of a color blind society is the ideal, one in which men and women are treated equally based upon the merit of their abilities and has nothing to do with physical differences that separate groups. It would certainly be nice if people could forgo their feelings of prejudice and racial identification, even if they are unaware that they have them. However, I do not think that such a thing will every really happen. Some people may be "color blind," in that they do not hold prejudicial views, but I do not think there are really any people who do not see difference between types of people. The fact that there are different skin tones is a physical characteristic and it would be as hard to become immune to this fact as to see no difference in hair color or height.

It is believed by society that there are people in a sociological setting who will have more power than another group of people and that this separation of powers will have something to do with the skin color of the two groups. Among the most prolific of these ideas is the concept of the power of the white male. White people are considered in the United States to be the ethnic group with the most amount of power in the society. Males are the gender group which is perceived to have the most power in the society. Therefore, to be a white male is to be seen as having the ultimate amount of potential power in this sociological setting. As a white man, I am privy to the power that is allowed me by my society because of these perceptions.

There are other differences which serve to create the social hierarchy of the United States. For example, sexual orientation has a definite place in the power structure of this society. Heterosexual men are considered part of the normative sexual orientation. Even though homosexual men and women have made strides in creating equality, there are still many groups in the country who view gay men and women as other and treat them as though they are not part of the normative group. Many people in the society treat homosexuals with derision and even violence. Therefore, to be a straight man means that the person will automatically have more power than his homosexual counterpart because the heterosexual man does not have to fight against the misconceptions of some of the less enlightened members of society. As a straight male, I belong to the less oppressed group.