Is there any shame or stigma connected to colorblindness?

Colorblindness runs in my family. My maternal grandmother’s brothers, my maternal uncles and male cousins and my one cousin’s son are all colorblind. Since I’ve grown up with almost all the men in my family colorblind, I’ve never thought it was a big deal. It’s very likely that if I have a son, he’ll be colorblind as well.

My husband’s brother has a son who seems very obviously red/green colorblind. But for some reason, my brother and sister in law are in complete denial about it. They say that he just hasn’t quite learned his colors yet. This isn’t quite true. He can name blue, black, yellow and white. But he calls any color with red or green it it “one of the bad colors” I think it’s because he gets hassled about memorizing what the color is and they probably all look brownish to him.

I don’t understand why they want to pretend that he’s not colorblind. It’s not a big deal. But I thought perhaps if it doesn’t run in your family, it’s a bigger deal than I thought. I’d talk to them about it, but they get really defensive and sensitive if anyone even mentions colorblindness at all.

I don’t know what will happen when he goes to school next year and has to officially take the colorblindness tests. There will be no denying it after that.