#colour-blind

[j-august]

It looked like something knitted as a present by a colour-blind aunt, the sort of thing you wouldn't dare throw away in case the rubbish collectors laughed at you and kicked your bins over.

Terry Pratchett, Thud

[villainessbian]

It's my turn to produce a hot take: your flag discourse is ableist because you're not being colour-blind inclusive

[sanderssidecanons]

Au where Logan is completely colour-blind (Only able to see nuances of grey):

-He loves to read since he doesn’t miss anything with the ink on the papers, even though it frustrated him that he isn’t capable of properly projecting the described colours in his inner picture of sceneries

-He would still enjoy space a lot and love to learn more and more about everything  he is able to learn and talk very passionately about his, well, passions

-He has to wear sunglasses when outside because he is very sensitive to bright light and therefore just prefers to stay at home and live a life as healthy as possible

-On the other hand can he understand that people think he is boring or a nerd, but he simply fails to see the beauty of certain things, because of the lack of colours he can see (He just fails to appreciate most pieces of art, even though he tries very hard to see what other people see, but he just can’t)

-He sometimes dreams about seeing colours (Even though the world he dreams of hasn’t an acurate palette of colours, but he still is very upset that he is not capable of accepting the fact that he will never properly see colours

-When he meets Roman he isn’t able to understand his passion for arts and drama (He wanted to help in the tech-crew of the drama club of his school when he was younger, but got declined because the others were not sure he would be capable)

- He quickly warms up to Patton and even tells him that he sometimes thinks his own body doesn’t have any colours and that he is just grey, like the world he sees

-Patton and Roman try to describe the colours he is wearing, describing his pale skin and brown hair and eyes, but Logan just can’t imagine what he looks like and it frustrates him greatly

-Roman helps him to pick outfits so the combinations don’t cause eye-bleed

-Logan likes to hang out with Virgil, because it is somewhat easy for him to forget what he can’t do because Virgil focuses on the things he can do

-All of them ask Logan always questions about space and other stuff he knows, so Logan doesn’t feel useless or wrong

-They help Logan to accept who he is, which is still a struggle for him since many people don’t trust him with issues he is certainly capable of solving himself. He has a long road ahead of himself, but it is okay, because he doesn’t have to walk it alone anymore.

[the-vitruvian-student]

Black Representation in Medicine: “I don’t see colour”

“As a doctor, race means nothing to me. When it comes to patients, I do not see colour.”

Given the recent ‘Black Renaissance’ and related enlightenment, racial tensions have risen in recent years, as Black and other POC are speaking out about current issues within race relations. Many people have adopted the position- ‘I don’t see colour’ in an attempt to eliminate racial barriers and unify all people into one big happy human race. However, in reality, this is not quite the case, and medically, this could certainly never be this simple. Of course, race shouldn’t matter, but, it nearly always does. I’m going to keep this short, but in this post, I just want to touch on why I believe opting for the ‘colour-blind’ stance as a medical professional is not the best idea. Here we are considering the implications of erasing the entire ethnicity of a patient.

In order to clarify the statement, lets delineate the term race… race - a group of people sharing the same culture, history, language, etc.; an ethnic group. Although race is primarily a social construct, it dips its foundations into ethnicity and heritage, both of which play an underlying part of race. Whilst race is only skin deep, ethnicity and heritage run as deep as our DNA.

The colour-blind ideology is usually adopted in attempt to absolve oneself from any part of racism and to try to adopt a neutral ground. However, in doing so, you are invalidating the POC experience and turning a blind eye to any present disparity or difference. Putting all social and behavioural aspects aside, we cannot help but ignore the profound genetic components behind our heritage. This can make us predisposed to certain things, or less likely to suffer from others (e.g Sickle Cell Anaemia). By homogenising the race of all your patients, you don’t see that each race has its own quirks  and experiences, and you refuse to see how these differences may have a clinical significance.  In your attempt to take an easy way out of racial tensions and avoid making any offense, you are at risk of putting the patient in danger, by overlooking key differences.

Throughout our education, we are often taught about how conditions, in particular skin conditions, may present on a white body, however, very rarely on a black or other person of colour.  By adopting the colour-blind stance, we are claiming that we do not see the need to deviate from this white standard, which is in fact a very privileged stance to take. It could be argued that white people are considered to be the standard in our society, therefore any difference to this is seen as ‘abnormal’. If you don’t see colour, you’ll never challenge the status quo and see the need to deviate from the white body standard and question – where is the diversity that we will surely see in practice? Ignoring colour is also ignoring the differences in symptom presentation. For example, a red rash on a white person will certainly look different on a black person. Being aware of different races also makes us aware of these differences, and this can very much be the difference between life and death.

One could argue that a down side to distinguishing the race of the patient, is because it may border on eugenics. There have been many examples where medical professionals have manipulated racial differences, in that they use genetics and predispositions to make and justify absolutes. It is important for us to be careful and be balanced- our awareness of race is to say that each race is different, and not that any race is superior to another.

To conclude, surely part of caring for a patient is to appreciate and acknowledge all aspects of their lives? This includes their heritage, their beliefs, etc.  It is time people understood that acknowledging someone’s race is not a bad thing and by doing so, we are open to discussions to solve problems and dismantle systems of oppression that may even present in a clinical setting.

Now:

-what are your thoughts on this? -what is your experience? -tell me what you think below 😊

[sheltiechicago]

Wellington Street by Steve Roter

[silvachege]

The Problem with Colour-Blind Casting

In an idolised world, the casting of Dev Patel as David Copperfield in Armando Iannucci retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic, would not have attracted attention or debate, and certainly not anger. Unfortunately, we do not live in such a Utopia. Far from it. The populists of Europe are gathering momentum and the Coronavirus is inching the world ever close to a recession. But I digress.

The…

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[moffmun]

Ate at Yo sushi for the first time today. They don't tell you the prices they just colour code everything and all the colours are the same. It was a difficult time for me

[jeffrevolucion]

Taken by Sanne De Wilde on the island of Pingelap, Micronesia. All of Pingelap’s inhabitants are colour-blind. Every photo was actually black and white. Back home, Sanne asked Dutch and Belgian people who suffer from colour-blindness to give the pictures some colour. In this way she tries to show the world trough the eyes of people who don’t see colour. The results are amazing.