EIHS Lecture: "What Can Blind People Tell Us About Race?"

In Blinded by Sight: Seeing Race Through the Eyes of the Blind, Professor Obasogie explores a world that many assumed did not exist: race in the blind community. In this talk, Obasogie will discuss his research with blind people about the role of race and racial perception in their everyday lives. What he finds is rather surprising: blind people understand and, in a sense, “see” race just like anyone else. So what does this mean for how we live and the laws that govern our society? Obasogie delves into these questions and uncovers how colorblindness in law, public policy, and culture will not lead to the racial utopia it promises.

Osagie K. Obasogie is Haas Distinguished Chair and Professor of Bioethics at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Joint Medical Program and School of Public Health. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for Genetics and Society. Obasogie's scholarly interests include Constitutional law, bioethics, sociology of law, and reproductive and genetic technologies. His writings have spanned both academic and public audiences, with journal articles in venues such as the Law & Society Review, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, Stanford Technology Law Review, and the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics along with commentaries in outlets including the New York Times, Slate, the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Scientific American, and New Scientist. His first book, Blinded By Sight: Seeing Race Through the Eyes of the Blind (Stanford University Press) was awarded the Herbert Jacob Book Prize by the Law and Society Association and his second book Beyond Bioethics: Toward a New Biopolitics (with Marcy Darnovsky) is under contract with the University of California Press. Obasogie received his B.A. in Sociology and Political Science from Yale University, his J.D. from Columbia Law School, and his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Free and open to the public.

This event is part of the Thursday Series of the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies. It is made possible by a generous contribution from Kenneth and Frances Aftel Eisenberg.