In last week’s lecture Angela Barian asked the class if we believe it is possible for society to be color blind. Although I have never thought about this question in depth, my immediate response was, no. It seems impossible that one human being can both consciously and subconsciously not recognize the color of another human being’s skin. Identifying and interpreting what we see through our eyes is simple human nature and something we have been trained to do since we were little. Interestingly enough, after thinking more about this subject I was brought back to an experience I had while babysitting years back- one that put a new light on this topic.
My freshman and sophomore year in high school I babysat my neighbors’ 7 year-old boy, Adrian. I have known him since he was young and my neighbors have always appeared as quiet, conservative people who were really into family activities. One night I came over for a routine night of babysitting to find one excited little boy. He was looking forward to a Cubs game him and his father were going to that weekend. Although I knew little about baseball I joined in with enthusiasm. As we took out a shoebox filled with baseball cards I was asking him about his favorite players. The family loved the Cubs and Adrian definitely had some favorite Cubs players, in particular Sammy Sosa. I knew he had seen a lot of these baseball players before because the family was always going to baseball games and watching them on TV. As I mentioned before, my knowledge of baseball was very miniscule but I was familiar with Sosa. When Adrian picked up a baseball card of a white male player and started yelling Sammy, Sammy I was reluctant to tell him that was not Sammy Sosa’s baseball card. He kept picking up cards both of white players and African American players asking me is this Sammy, or is this Sammy? I was confused on how this little boy who has watched the Cubs since he could remember, not know the general appearance of Sammy Sosa. Adrian clearly did not recognize or acknowledge that Sosa had darker skin. To him, it seemed as though skin color was as hard to identify as eye-color and both characteristics appeared equally relevant to ones physical appearance.
Though I did not give this much thought then, now I am very fascinated. Was Adrian taught not to judge appearance based on skin color or did he simply not see it? This idea is completely knew for me as I was born in Poland a primarily Caucasian country. Growing up I never saw anyone that looked different than me, I was used to everyone having white skin. I came to the U.S when I was 6, and that was the first time that I saw an African American individual. Interestingly enough, then, at about the same age as Adrian I did not react the same way as he did. I was indeed able to recognize the difference in skin colors. Through this experience I question why Adrian was different than I was. Is it because he had been exposed to diversity from a young age and did not use it as a mean of judgment, or is it simply because he was young and not yet affected by racial dividers? I would like to believe that Adrian’s exposure to diversity is what allowed him to look past the obvious physical differences in the baseball players. I believe the discussion of race is necessary and lack of it results in chasm because people really do see and experience race in different ways. In the example between me and Adrian, no one talked to me about race because there was no need for it and this definitely did not help me understand or accept racial diversity upon arrival to the United States. In contrast, Adrian’s ability to look past skin color was most likely the result of his exposure to it. The recent move towards “not seeing color” in our society is demonstrated in Adrian yet I truly do not believe it is the solution to racism. As mentioned in class, it would be more effective if race was celebrated and discussed in our society versus ignored. Ideally, if individuals could identify race and assume it to be as relevant to ones personality and character as eye or hair color, we would be one step closer to putting racial dilemmas behind us.
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