Don’t you just love the expression, “It’s a miracle; I can see; I can see”? What if the expression were, “It’s a miracle; I can see differently; I can see differently”?
The UC Davis Eye Center, working with France’s INSERM Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute, discovered that spectral notch filters in glasses help the color blind to see some color they could not previously see.* After wearing the glasses during a test period, the previous color-blind participants began to see color without the glasses. It’s an interesting demonstration that though eyes are necessary for vision, it’s the brain that “sees.”
I’m wondering whether or not there could be a reverse analog for these filters. You know, a filter that keeps people from seeing color, thus altering how people approach others with a different skin color. Apparently, there’s a need for such color blindness as one solution to racial bias. As a somewhat peach-colored human, I might then be treated equally with those who are a different color. Sure, I know that I’m listed as “white”—a Caucasian—but I’ve seen white, and I ain’t that color. Heck, after hours in the sun without some protective coating, I sometimes turn burnt sienna (but not where the “sun don’t shine”).
Anyway, it’s obvious that skin color plays a role in how billions of people have interacted. But not just color. Take the stereotypical “differences” between the Tutsis and the Hutus. The unfortunate interpretation foisted on the two groups by German colonials was that the Tutsis were more “European” in appearance. Missionaries probably contributed to the stereotypical differences as they found one group more receptive to their message than the other group. Among the characteristics: One group is supposedly taller on average than the other and has “European” longer noses in contrast to shorter stature and noses for the other group. Once the stereotype was fixed, it became the “way to see” the two tribes of people. The lens provided to by both the Germans and the missionaries filtered the color of skin and trained tribal brains. Sure, there were differences that might have been obvious to the Hutus and the Tutsis who tentatively tolerated one another with some occasionally interruptive events, but the filtered lenses introduced by the European colonialists exacerbated those differences, leading to the massacres in Rwanda.
Filters that train the brain. That’s pretty much what skin color bias is all about. Through what kind of filter do you see others? Take off your glasses for a moment to remove the filters. Oh! Wait. According to the study by the eye center and the brain research institute, the effect of the filters endures for a time (as yet not determined). In short, it takes a while for the effect of such filters to wear off, maybe, in fact, forever.
So, to recap: In an experiment, color blind people wore special filters that gave them the ability to see colors. After taking the filters off, the color blind could see some color they previously had not experienced with their unaided eyes. Their brains seem to have learned how to see colors. Now, all we need is a set of filters that train the brain not to see color, at least not to see the color of people.
*https://phys.org/news/2020-07-special-filters-glasses.html
The UC Davis Eye Center, working with France’s INSERM Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute, discovered that spectral notch filters in glasses help the color blind to see some color they could not previously see.* After wearing the glasses during a test period, the previous color-blind participants began to see color without the glasses. It’s an interesting demonstration that though eyes are necessary for vision, it’s the brain that “sees.”
I’m wondering whether or not there could be a reverse analog for these filters. You know, a filter that keeps people from seeing color, thus altering how people approach others with a different skin color. Apparently, there’s a need for such color blindness as one solution to racial bias. As a somewhat peach-colored human, I might then be treated equally with those who are a different color. Sure, I know that I’m listed as “white”—a Caucasian—but I’ve seen white, and I ain’t that color. Heck, after hours in the sun without some protective coating, I sometimes turn burnt sienna (but not where the “sun don’t shine”).
Anyway, it’s obvious that skin color plays a role in how billions of people have interacted. But not just color. Take the stereotypical “differences” between the Tutsis and the Hutus. The unfortunate interpretation foisted on the two groups by German colonials was that the Tutsis were more “European” in appearance. Missionaries probably contributed to the stereotypical differences as they found one group more receptive to their message than the other group. Among the characteristics: One group is supposedly taller on average than the other and has “European” longer noses in contrast to shorter stature and noses for the other group. Once the stereotype was fixed, it became the “way to see” the two tribes of people. The lens provided to by both the Germans and the missionaries filtered the color of skin and trained tribal brains. Sure, there were differences that might have been obvious to the Hutus and the Tutsis who tentatively tolerated one another with some occasionally interruptive events, but the filtered lenses introduced by the European colonialists exacerbated those differences, leading to the massacres in Rwanda.
Filters that train the brain. That’s pretty much what skin color bias is all about. Through what kind of filter do you see others? Take off your glasses for a moment to remove the filters. Oh! Wait. According to the study by the eye center and the brain research institute, the effect of the filters endures for a time (as yet not determined). In short, it takes a while for the effect of such filters to wear off, maybe, in fact, forever.
So, to recap: In an experiment, color blind people wore special filters that gave them the ability to see colors. After taking the filters off, the color blind could see some color they previously had not experienced with their unaided eyes. Their brains seem to have learned how to see colors. Now, all we need is a set of filters that train the brain not to see color, at least not to see the color of people.
*https://phys.org/news/2020-07-special-filters-glasses.html
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