LETTERS: COLOR-BLIND ABOUT PEOPLE

To the editor:

I recall how much of a problem I had in grade school because I was visually color-blind. I had a real problem in art classes, because my teacher would make fun of me for my purple skies and red grass. I made the worst grades in those classes. I thought I was too dumb to recognize colors. Finally, in college, I took a test and learned to my relief that I was simply color-blind, especially with red and green. Fortunately, I can usually distinguish the colors of the stoplights since the green seems to have a bluish tint and the red a bit of yellow, or one is darker than the other. My eyesight is not as good as it once was, but the colors are still hard to distinguish.

The other day I called on a resident in a nursing home. The resident I was visiting said, "I don't see very well. Are you black or yellow?" I told her that the last time I washed my face I was still white. Both of us chuckled.

Several years ago I was director of a school in Lima, Peru, in which 800 students and staff came from black, Oriental, Indian and mixed ancestry. No one seemed to think about racial or ethnic backgrounds. Rather, the emphasis was on academic and intellectual achievements. They wanted to learn in order to improve their position in life. The graduates have come to the United States and gone to other parts of the world. There was no issue of color.

Unfortunately, in our country color seems to have a long history of inequality and discrimination. Too often it has emphasized the questions regarding race and racism. This may be fundamentally a problem related to economic pressures and differences.

Color is not a matter which we can dismiss with a chuckle. Would that we might minimize the differences and recognize that we are all a part of the human race trying to make it a better world and a more pleasant place in which to live.

IVAN NOTHDURFT

Cape Girardeau