Conservatives' wrong-headed arguments about "colorblindness" and racism are more of the same.

Circumstances change and ideologies shift, but the message from conservatives stays the same: What happens on the ground doesn’t matter; equality under the law is sufficient for civil rights. This has never been (and isn’t) true, but then, this isn’t a matter of truth as much as it’s a question of belief. If you believe that racism has been sorted away—or if it hasn’t, that it isn’t a concern for the federal government—then there’s no need for active efforts toward racial amelioration. And if, like von Spakovsky, you see anti-White discrimination as the key concern, you’ll oppose any effort to level the playing field for minorities.

But if you see racism as a force to fight—if, in other words, you think the facts matter—then you’ll reject this “colorblindness” for what it is: a reactionary excuse for doing nothing.