A video posted on Twitter showing the very different ways people responded to two blind men is gaining traction.
Both appeared to need assistance, wearing dark shades and traveling with a walking stick, but those captured in the social experiment revealed a very dark reality about race and empathy.
In the clip, the base of the social experiment was that despite similar conditions, people treated the taller white man differently than the shorter Black man.
Repeatedly, when the Black man touched the arm of the pedestrian walking close to him, people would jerk away. When the white man did the same act, while the people appeared to be startled, they acquiesced to his unspoken request for aid and helped him navigate the area.
Comments on social media ranged from being outraged to simply accepting that some white people will never be compassionate to Blacks, even if they are handicapped.
One person tweeted, “White ppl say all day ‘I dont see color’ ‘I don’t see color’ LIES!!! 0-8 for the black Man.”
“It’s 2023 & this is nothing new,” someone else tweeted with a virtual shrug.
While people were not shocked at the lack of empathy shown toward the Black man, more were upset that one of the white pedestrians seemed to wipe his arm after he was touched.
“The guy wiping his arm damn,” one person wrote.
“Does the majority of white people think that our blackness will rub off on them?” a Twitter user asked.
“Bruh fr! Wiped that shit off like it left a stain on they skin smh,” another wrote.
Out of hundreds of replies, one person sought to be the devil’s advocate” saying, “[The] White dude went to mainly people of color and women.”
“[The] Black dude went to ONLY white men,” adding, “This was a bad example try again!”
