Blinded by Sight: Seeing Race Through the Eyes of the Blind

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.

Author: Osagie Obasogie
Publisher: Stanford Law Books
Published: 12/11/2013
Pages: 287
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.86lbs
Size: 8.96h x 6.12w x 0.65d
ISBN: 9780804772792

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 11/01/2013 pg. 4
Choice 06/01/2014

About the Author
Osagie K. Obasogie is Professor of Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law with a joint appointment at UCSF Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for Genetics and Society. Named one of 12 Emerging Scholars in Academia under 40 by Diverse Issues in Higher Education, his research and writing spans Constitutional law, bioethics, sociology of law, and reproductive and genetic technologies. He has written forSlate, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, and New Scientist.