¹Colorblindness is a way of seeing the world that supposedly ignores the color of a person’s skin. ²A colorblind manager, for example, refuses to notice a person’s race when hiring. ³In this way, colorblindness may sound like a good philosophy. ⁴However, it can actually do a lot of harm because it covers up the fact that a person’s race can still deny him or her the opportunity for success. 
⁵Critics of colorblindness suggest that it is a cover for a deeper, subtler kind of racism. ⁶They say that the practice of ignoring race protects the already existing social, political, and economic advantages enjoyed by Whites. ⁷Colorblind White people say that it is not racism but culture that creates social inequality. ⁸In this view, a person is not turned away from a job because of skin color but because of a culture that has failed to educate him or her into becoming an independent, productive worker. ⁹This belief sounds non-racist because it claims that opportunities for success are based on ability, not on race.   ¹⁰Colorblindness therefore allows Whites to define themselves as racially tolerant—and to ignore the fact that white skin is still an advantage in today’s world.
¹¹Some would even argue that Whites protect this advantage when they claim to be colorblind. ¹²Their practice of pretending that everything is okay is not truly fair and equal.  ¹³Today’s so-called colorblindness ignores the still very real and burning issue of racism.  ¹⁴To imagine that American society is already free of racism dismisses the fact that racism still exists. ¹⁵Colorblindness suggests that we already live in an imaginary equality, and it therefore allows Whites to present their privileged position as one that is earned. 
      ¹⁶On the other hand, supporters of colorblindness also have important points to make. ¹⁷They believe that a manager who pays attention to race during the hiring process is guilty of racism. ¹⁸They claim that programs like affirmative action are a form of “reverse-discrimination.” ¹⁹A manager who hires a Black woman to “give Black people a chance” is seen as possibly discriminating against other candidates for the job. ²⁰When affirmative action uses group identity (such as “blacks” or “Latinos”) to challenge the existing racial order, this is viewed as wrong because it violates the belief that we are a nation of free individuals.
      ²¹Despite this claim, the logic inherent in the colorblind approach is still flawed. ²²It states that, since race would no longer determine success in a truly colorblind world, there is no need to take race into account when making important decisions, as when hiring a new employee. ²³This circular logic hides America’s currently existing racial hierarchy by implying that opportunities for success are already equal for everyone. ²⁴It pretends that discrimination does not exist, and it therefore maintains Whites at the top of the hierarchy.

¹Although witchcraft and sorcery are usually associated with small communities in the non-Western world, they are also found in highly industrialized parts of the world such as the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. ²Modern-day witches, who use their powers for good purposes, call their belief system Wicca, a term meaning “witch,” derived from Old English. ³Wicca tends to be non-dogmatic, non-hierarchical, and non-proselytizing (that is, it does not try to convert people to its faith). ⁴It has a number of gentle rituals that seem to appeal especially to women, and is based on the basic philosophy of “Do what you will, but harm none.”
⁵Practiced largely in urban areas, witchcraft, like the mainstream religions, involves worship as a central part of its activities. ⁶Although it is possible for both men and women to practice witchcraft, in North American cities most practitioners are women.  ⁷Wicca has an unmistakably feminine character. ⁸Local organizations of witches, called covens, are often presided over by high priestesses, symbolic representations of the mother goddess. ⁹Some covens consider themselves fertility cults, and some actually involve sexual intercourse as part of their initiation, although this is relatively rare.  ¹⁰Although the sexual aspects of Wicca, as usual, have attracted a good deal of interest in the news media, Wiccans mostly emphasize life-giving powers of the Earth goddess, not sexuality. 
¹¹Wicca may involve the practice of magic, which is defined as bringing about changes by invoking one’s own divine powers. ¹²It is important to note that the magical powers of Wiccans are not supernatural, but natural. ¹³Wiccans use a variety of methods, such as visualization, incantations, chants, and meditation to focus their inner powers to bring about a desired change. ¹⁴Practitioners of modern witchcraft claim that their early pre-Christian ancestors possessed these natural magical powers, but they were subsequently lost when Wicca was forced to go underground by the Roman Catholic Church. ¹⁵As a neo-pagan movement, modern-day Wicca views itself as a means of rediscovering these lost magical powers. 
¹⁶Witchcraft appears to be one of the fastest-growing religions in the United States, but there are no reliable estimates on how many practitioners exist. ¹⁷The growth of the modern Wicca has coincided with the rise of feminism, ecology movements, and movements seeking freedom from authority. ¹⁸In late 2004, the Yahoo search engine located more than 1,280,000 separate Wiccan Web sites. ¹⁹The Internet bookseller Amazon.com was selling 1,251 different books on the Wiccan movement and more than 21,000 titles on the general topic of witchcraft.