Colour? All you need is love
Alan Kummer,
U.K.
Scientifically, colour doesn’t really exist. Thank you ‘National Geographic’ for fully opening my eyes.
I’m white. But that’s too simplistic.
Bana Goldsmith,
Canada.
My high school teacher told me once that he was looking forward to the day when everybody’s skin was the same colour because that would decrease racism. I see his point but, apart from thinking this is not likely to ever happen totally, I feel we need to mature past racism as a species. Recognize and appreciate our differences without discrimination.
Fair-skinned Indian, should be lucky
Kalpana,
Singapore
Indians come in different languages, shapes, sizes and colours. We can look so different from each other and still be brothers and sisters. Dark skinned Indians are looked down at even by their very own people. Somehow being fair skinned is look at highly and thus makes lives much easier as they are thought as upper caste. Colour of the skin decides the caste and the person’s purity. Very sadly, by the nation’s very own people. It just shows how naive people are and how consumed they are by whitism even in a land full of different colours.
Do not judge race by appearance
Stefano Pavone,
United Kingdom
I am of mixed Euro-Mediterranean descent – primarily Italian, with some Greek and Spanish as well. Given that the Mediterranean region of Europe has a story of conquest by external peoples (Moors, Ottomans, Romans, etc.), it is difficult to exactly pinpoint the ethnic genesis of its people, as it not consistent like with other nations and cultures. Another issue I have encountered is that the American and European definitions of a “Latin person” differ, so while I may be on a technical level half-white, half-Latino in Europe, in America I would be considered white only. I wish to put forward that ANYONE can be racist regardless of skin colour, heritage or philosophy. If true equality is to be achieved, then we must all be held accountable for our prejudices and learn to overcome them. If someone tells you they are of a certain ethnic group, then please try to respect them and try not to judge by their looks – to do so and to actively mock or deride them based on their appearance is in itself racial profiling.
Colour, power, difference, struggle, dignity, aesthetics
G. Arunima
New Dehli, India
I am visiting from India, and for many of us the civil rights movement, and the debates and politics of race have been deeply formative in our political growth.
Colour is not a culture
Ashley C
Canada
The colour of my skin does not define who I am, and colours can often be misleading. When people ask me “what I am” I tell them I am human. I am a product of my environment. I am a piece of my mother, my father, my grandparents, and my extended family. I am part small-town and have all the beliefs, customs, values and upbringing that were prevalent in that community and within my family. Above all, I am human and possess all the qualities that define the human race. I am capable of anger, hatred, prejudice and egocentrism as well as compassion, understanding, love and kindness. I refuse to pick a racial “label”, because each label is vague and often comes at a price. I am sure other people will try to put me into some neat little category, either based on what I look like, how I speak, how I act, or how I dress. They will guess I am one race or another, based on the colour of my skin, my hair, my eyes, the shape of my face. I will fit neatly into some, but not into others. And ultimately, they will find a label of “best fit”. And I will remind them that the colour of my skin does not define me. An orange and a carrot both have orange skin but they are very different. They have qualities that distinguish themselves from each other, and they have both been grown in different ways. It is the same with people. We may group each other into categories based on a few small attributes like skin colour, but we all have different qualities that make us unique and it’s unlikely that we have all been raised/grown in the same way.
Disregarding a Caucasian’s background is racism.
Julie Tee
Canada
I know people of colour who will take into account the different ethnicity groups that make up a person of colour but will shamelessly disregard the racial background of a white (as in, they don’t care if you’re half Irish, half Serbian, to them white is white). That’s how racism starts, isn’t it? The idea that the background of one race is less important (or more important) than the other. This isn’t me trying to defend the history of oppression Caucasians are infamous for, this is me, as a person of colour, saying it’s wrong to disregard anybody.
What colour are your chromosomes? Neurones?
Kate Barald
Ann Arbor, MI
