1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910463434903321

Autore

Obasogie Osagie K

Titolo

Blinded by sight : seeing race through the eyes of the blind / / Osagie K. Obasogie

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Stanford, California : , : Stanford Louisiana Books, an imprint of Stanford University Press, , [2014]

©2014

ISBN

0-8047-8927-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (288 pages)

Disciplina

305.800973

Soggetti

Race awareness - United States

Blind - United States - Attitudes

Race - Social aspects - United States

Race discrimination - Law and legislation - United States

Post-racialism - United States

Electronic books.

United States Race relations

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Critiquing the critique : beyond social constructionism -- Theory, methods, and initial findings -- Visualizing race, racializing vision -- Revisiting colorblindness -- Race, vision, and equal protection -- On post-racialism.

Sommario/riassunto

Colorblindness has become an integral part of the national conversation on race in America. Given the assumptions behind this influential metaphor—that being blind to race will lead to racial equality—it's curious that, until now, we have not considered if or how the blind "see" race. Most sighted people assume that the answer is obvious: they don't, and are therefore incapable of racial bias—an example that the sighted community should presumably follow. In Blinded by Sight,Osagie K. Obasogie shares a startling observation made during discussions with people from all walks of life who have been blind since birth: even the blind aren't colorblind—blind people understand race visually, just like everyone else. Ask a blind person



what race is, and they will more than likely refer to visual cues such as skin color. Obasogie finds that, because blind people think about race visually, they orient their lives around these understandings in terms of who they are friends with, who they date, and much more. In Blinded by Sight, Obasogie argues that rather than being visually obvious, both blind and sighted people are socialized to see race in particular ways, even to a point where blind people "see" race. So what does this mean for how we live and the laws that govern our society? Obasogie delves into these questions and uncovers how color blindness in law, public policy, and culture will not lead us to any imagined racial utopia.