What A Blind Person Thinks About Racism

You know why the tomato turned red? It saw the salad dressing. [laughs] [music plays] Online and offline people are very curious about my ideas on race. What I think it is. How it works and how I perceive it and everything. I have to be honest. I really -- I don't think about it. I don't. I mean, for example, I don't think of people being tall or short, right. I just think of them as humans. I think about what they have to say. I think about what they think. You know, how they are to me. I don't care if somebody is 6'10" or 4'9". You know what I mean? Just the same way I don't care what color somebody's skin. I can't imagine what that must be like. You know, to have different color skin. It's just not something I really think about too much. I just think about people. And I think about if we have fun together and if we like each other. You know. If somebody makes me laugh it's doesn't matter if they're tall or fat or skinny or black or green or whatever. I just like them and we have a good time together. [music plays] Martin Luther King always talked about "Don't judge a man by the color of his skin, but the content of his character. And I got to be honest with you I think people like myself and other blind people are the best at that because we don't see the color of their skin. Right? It's all about content of character. See, beauty. I don't know from beauty either. I don't know if you're beautiful or not. You're beautiful to me if we get along and you make me laugh and you make me smile, you know, you're beautiful to me. We have fun together. Right. That's what my beauty is. I get to know somebody to figure out whether or not I like them. I can't just walk by somebody and go "yuck, I don't like that person because they got yellow teeth or whatever." I don't -- it doesn't matter to me. People judge others by a lot of different things. I mean, not only race but by the clothes that they wear, by the shoes that they wear. By the type of car that they drive. Really? Come on, man. Who cares about that stuff? Although, I wouldn't be caught dead in a Chevy Volt. No. [laughs] I'm just kidding. [music plays] I really can't tell race or anything by what somebody says or what somebody does. You know what I mean? One of the things that I have noticed is that our skin is a little bit different. White people and black people. Black people it is that there are more natural moisturizers in their skin therefore their skin is softer than ours. It's isn't as course as white people's skin. [music continues] So when I was young I happened to notice I touched a black person's hair one time and went "wow, what's that?" You're hair is completely different than mine and I love it and want that hair. And I said, "what is that?" And they, "well, because I'm black and my hair is a little bit different than yours." And I went, "that's so cool. I want that." You know what I mean? Because it's really soft to touch. And that was one of the first times I ever really got to sort of see the difference between myself and somebody else. You know, that we had sort of a different thing happening. But I wanted it. I didn't hate it. I was like this is so cool because my hair is very straight. You know, and this was nice and tight and soft and it just felt great - oh. I think I sat and touched her head for a really long time because I just thought it was so cool. So I guess that's my real first memory of sort of noticing that, wow, you know what, there are some difference in people and it's kind of cool and I like that. I don't know. I feel like I can't be funny talking about this stuff because it's quite serious. [music plays] I always wanted to have a party, right, where no one could see. Now, there would be people to help you for example if somebody needed to go to the bathroom or to bring drinks to people and things like this. But none of the guests could see each other and they could just talk to each other. And I think that would be so cool. And you know at the end of the night you take off the blindfolds or whatever and let people see who you've been talking to for a few hours. It would be awesome. Right, because if you close your eyes it's amazing the things you could hear. I think so. I need somebody with a giant house so we can have this party, so... [laughs] [music plays] It boggles my mind that we're all different colors. See, inside we're all the same color, aren't we? It's just this stupid skin that gets in the way. And quite frankly it's vision that can get in the way as well. If we all got rid of the skin we'd all look the same again. If you don't like me, that's cool. I get it. But don't dislike me because I can't see... Dislike me because of what I say and what I do. Right. My being blind has nothing to do with my character. Nothing. Just the same as someone's color skin color has nothing to do with their character. Nothing at all. It's all about what's in your head and what's in your head. Those are the only two things that matter to me about a human. Really. [music plays] You know what's funny? M&M's are different colors but they all taste the same. It's true. Only the outside parts are different. The insides are all the same. Humanity. Just like a bag of M&M's. [beep] You know what you'd call America if everyone had a pink car? Wait for it... A pink car-nation. [laughs]

Channel: The Tommy Edison Experience

Views: 1,166,918

Keywords: Tommy Edison, blind, blindness, visually impaired, comedy, humor, funny, blind youtuber, racism, race, skin color, ethinicty, race war, prejudice, racism documentary, racism in media, racism experiment, racism social experiment, blind racism, blind since birth, born blind, culture, black people, white people, african american, American Indian, Asian, Hispanic, Latino, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Caucasian, Racial, Ethnic, Diversity, bigotry, discrimination, segregation, bias, Anti-Semitism

Id: QFZX6tmLrP8

Length: 5min 44sec (344 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 08 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/adventurousintrovert]

This is a little problematic. Though it does accurately portray the function of racism to maintain power through arbitrary means, that have shaped social constructs in our reality.... it also unintentionally undermines the real pain behind racism by suggesting "I don't see racism, why do you, and why can't it all be merit based the way I see it from my given perspective". The guy is so sweet though and it's definitely interesting to hear his perspective. It makes the way our entire system functions appear as silly. But it really should be vehemently rejected. For me, it points to a scarier reality that as a society we give truth to power through our complicit acceptance of an unpalatable, atrocious system that still very much pervades society and plays large factor in people's quality of life.

[u/GhostZ28]

I really like his videos. And he's honest...even made a video about someone asking him how blind people know when they've wiped enough after they poop.

[u/A_CC]

Papa bless Tommy