I'm sure if blackness could be treated, it would be consider an illness.

Does anyone remember a scene from the short-lived tv show Gideon's Crossing? I never watched it, but they hyped one episode ad nauseum by showing this one very relevant clip, which remember as follows:

A black doctor is trying convince a deaf woman to let her daughter get cochlear implants to cure her deafness.

Mother: You're saying that hearing people are better than deaf people.

Doctor: No, I'm saying it's easier.

Mother: Would your life be easier if you were white?