On the train from New York to Boston, I noticed that the old gentleman sitting next to me was blind. My doctoral supervisor is blind, so I have no obstacles in communicating with blind people. And, I also poured a cup of hot coffee for the old man. There had just been a race riot in Los Angeles, so we got to the topic of racial bias.
The old man said that he was from the southern United States, and he believed that black people were inferior since he was a child. The servants in the house were all Negroes, and he had never eaten with Negroes or attended the same schools in the South. Sometimes, when he was shopping in the mall, when he met a black clerk, he would put the money on the counter and let the clerk pick it up by himself. He is afraid of any physical contact with black people.
He had an accident during his master’s degree in Boston. Although he survived, he was blind and could no longer see anything. He went to a rehabilitation home for the blind, where he learned to type in Braille and how to walk with a cane. Gradually, he began to have his own life. He said: “The thing that bothers me the most is that I can’t tell if someone is black. I told my counselor about it and he tried to enlighten me. I trust him and tell him everything. , regarded him as a good teacher and helpful friend. Until one day, the counselor told me that he himself was black.
” It doesn’t matter. I can’t tell whether the other person is white or black, and it doesn’t make any sense to me.” When he was about to get out of the car, the old man said: “My prejudice disappeared along with my vision. What a blessing!” On the
platform, the old man’s wife was already waiting there, and the two embraced warmly. I suddenly discovered that his wife was a black man with silver hair! That’s when I realized how unfortunate it is that I have good eyesight but my prejudices are still there. In many cases, eyes can mislead or even deceive us, but blind people who have lost their eyesight are looking at the world with their hearts and “seeing” more clearly.
