Color blindness is a genetic condition where individuals have difficulty distinguishing colors or seeing colors normally due to genes on the X chromosome that produce photopigments being missing or damaged. It is usually inherited from parents to children as a sex-linked recessive trait, with males having a higher chance of expressing color blindness since they only have one X chromosome compared to females who have two. The genes responsible for color blindness are located on the X chromosome and can be passed from parent to child through genetic inheritance.