Folder in System Preferences Grayed Out

I was using Google Chrome yesterday when it froze. I had to force quit and then it wouldn't re-open. I needed all the windows back I had been using so I went to Time Machine to get back my Chrome preferences folder from earlier in the day, but it was grayed out. I opened the same folder on my hard drive and it too was grayed out. It won't let me open it in either place.

So I tried duplicating it to my desktop and it did copy, but when I try to open Chrome with it, it acts like a brand new copy...like there are files that are missing to bring back my previous history.

Why would these folders be grayed out like that? How can I access them? I tried Get Info and unlocking them, but it won't let me change the read preference for "everyone" to read/write. What could have possibly happened to these files?