Are we all that different from each other?
I listened to two podcasts while walking this week. Two completely different topics, but parts of each seemed to connect with the other, in my mind.
The first podcast I listened to was #AirbnbWhileBlack on NPR's Hidden Brain. This one was about claims that Airbnb users were facing discrimination on this "rental" platform - based on what their name sounded like and what color they may be, and how hidden biases play a role in The Sharing Economy. It was a very interesting listen because this is an ongoing struggle not just for Airbnb users, but people everywhere. Discrimination can be based on so many factors, is so wide spread, and can be so subtle that we may have seen it (or may have even been part of it ourselves) without realizing it! It is nothing new, and every country in the world has it. The caste system in India is still prevalent in so many little ways (and big ways, if you are in rural regions). Racism is becoming a big issue again here, in America.The list can go on. Discrimination is like the mythical Hydra, with many heads that can regenerate and magically multiply when one is cut off.
The second podcast that I listened to was also on NPR, called "Extrasensory", which talked about how we can expand/augment our senses to more deeply experience the world around us. While it covered a lot of different kinds of things related to augmenting our senses, the one talk that stood out to me was the one by artist, Neil Harbisson, who was born completely color blind, but can now "hear" colors using an electronic eye. The electronic eye is a color sensor that detects color frequencies around it and transmits the frequency through bone conduction, so Neil can "hear" the colors around him. Neil says that his perception of beauty (in people and objects/surroundings) has changed since he started "listening" to color. He "hears" a person's face instead of only seeing them, and he says a beautiful person might sound terrible or vice-versa. He also says that these sound portraits of people have helped him see similarities in people where you wouldn't normally see any. He uses the example of how Nicole Kidman and Prince Charles have eyes that sound similar! How cool is that?!
Coming to the part where my brain connected the two topics - if only we could "hear" people and find similarities, instead of just "seeing" differences between us. If only we could expand our senses to delve deeper into who someone really is, instead of making snap judgments on them. If only we could use our senses to find similarities and celebrate both, similarities, and differences. It shouldn't be that hard to find something common between all of us. After all, aren't we all cut from the same cloth if we really get down to it? And, I don't think we need any extra sensory powers to do that, do we?!
I know, I know, easier said than done. But, every small step helps move us in the right direction, as does every person thinking and acting in the right way. In the words of the great Mother Teresa - "We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."
Links to topics mentioned above:
The first podcast I listened to was #AirbnbWhileBlack on NPR's Hidden Brain. This one was about claims that Airbnb users were facing discrimination on this "rental" platform - based on what their name sounded like and what color they may be, and how hidden biases play a role in The Sharing Economy. It was a very interesting listen because this is an ongoing struggle not just for Airbnb users, but people everywhere. Discrimination can be based on so many factors, is so wide spread, and can be so subtle that we may have seen it (or may have even been part of it ourselves) without realizing it! It is nothing new, and every country in the world has it. The caste system in India is still prevalent in so many little ways (and big ways, if you are in rural regions). Racism is becoming a big issue again here, in America.The list can go on. Discrimination is like the mythical Hydra, with many heads that can regenerate and magically multiply when one is cut off.
The second podcast that I listened to was also on NPR, called "Extrasensory", which talked about how we can expand/augment our senses to more deeply experience the world around us. While it covered a lot of different kinds of things related to augmenting our senses, the one talk that stood out to me was the one by artist, Neil Harbisson, who was born completely color blind, but can now "hear" colors using an electronic eye. The electronic eye is a color sensor that detects color frequencies around it and transmits the frequency through bone conduction, so Neil can "hear" the colors around him. Neil says that his perception of beauty (in people and objects/surroundings) has changed since he started "listening" to color. He "hears" a person's face instead of only seeing them, and he says a beautiful person might sound terrible or vice-versa. He also says that these sound portraits of people have helped him see similarities in people where you wouldn't normally see any. He uses the example of how Nicole Kidman and Prince Charles have eyes that sound similar! How cool is that?!
Coming to the part where my brain connected the two topics - if only we could "hear" people and find similarities, instead of just "seeing" differences between us. If only we could expand our senses to delve deeper into who someone really is, instead of making snap judgments on them. If only we could use our senses to find similarities and celebrate both, similarities, and differences. It shouldn't be that hard to find something common between all of us. After all, aren't we all cut from the same cloth if we really get down to it? And, I don't think we need any extra sensory powers to do that, do we?!
I know, I know, easier said than done. But, every small step helps move us in the right direction, as does every person thinking and acting in the right way. In the words of the great Mother Teresa - "We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."
Links to topics mentioned above:
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