Color Colors Thoughts, Essay Example

Colors, and the appearances they depict, certainly have symbolic meanings that influence the way people interpret things. As an African-American, I’m consciously aware of the connotative meanings of the term “black.” More often than otherwise, black is associated with everything that is undesirable and out of order; evil, death, sin, hell, barbaric, uncivilized. Consequently, every time an opinionated white person hears about Africa, the black continent, he conjures up images of suffering, poverty, witchcraft, illiteracy and jungle-like life. It creates images that attach certain meanings to race and ethnicity. Being a black person, therefore, means to be less intelligent, given to violence and somewhat barbaric. This paper examines the various ways in which color influences people’s perceptions about the world.

In Society: The Basics, John Macionis notes that the idea of “color’ as a way of coloring thoughts means that a person’s skin color can affects how society evaluates the person.  The notions about color are sociological concepts about the ways that people interact along ethnic and racial lines. Macionis states that “Race” refers to a person’s biological traits, and “ethnicity” refers to a person’s cultural heritage (Macionis 2009).  This observation portrays the centrality of color in shaping people’s attitudes, beliefs and stereotypes. It explains the stereotypes that the white society has on blacks, such as being backward, violent and uncivilized.

From childhood, children are exposed to society’s negative attitudes towards anything that is black.  At the same time, every undesirable element is painted black, as a fixed and solid distinction of whatever that is bad. Thus, the child who is different from others in a family is labeled ‘the black sheep.’ In fact, this blatant distortion of the image of blackness is so arbitrary that if anything does not fit within what is regarded as desirable, then it gets the label black. Accordingly, a child who pursues arts in a family of doctors becomes the black sheep, even if they become successful in their careers. Not surprisingly, then, it is easy to have a negative impression of anyone who is labeled as the black sheep in a family. It is not because the person’s character is tainted in some way, but simply because he deviates from the norm.

In real life situations, we have found ways of attaching the label black to events, times and locations associated with bad luck, catastrophes and calamities. A day that witnesses bad fortune automatically becomes a black day, such as black Friday. In this regard, September 11 was a black day in the history of America, because so many Americans died from terrorist attacks. Spots prone to accidents are labeled ‘black spots,’ because they are associated with death. Even religion has found the perfect image of portraying Satan and evil-black. As a result, Satan is not white, but a black guy with an ugly face, hiding in a dark black cave. Perhaps to distinguish evil from the more desirable aspect of righteousness, black is always contrasted with white. Consequently, to be white is to be civilized, superior, intelligent, cultured and progressive. Whiteness even has a connotative meaning of holiness- being as white as snow at heart. But the sinner’s heart is depicted to be as black as charcoal. This is the absurdity of pinning meaning to color.

Nevertheless, the concept of color and the connotative meaning it creates is just a construction of society, resulting from people’s experiences and cross-cultural/racial relations. In the essay The Brown Study, Richard Rodriguez begins with a question of whether or not color colors thoughts. He observes that “A person’s eyes can be brown,” but wonders how “a person’s life can be brown.” (Rodriguez 121). This view suggests that people or things cannot be judged by their appearances, but are understood within their historical context. In this regard, being black and barbaric relates to the history of black people, especially their late achievement in civilization. Because they lived as savages until much later- compared to the white race, then it becomes easy to associate black with this period of savagery and barbarism.

Works Cited

Macionis, John. “Race and Ethnicity.” Society: The Basics. Saddle River: Pearson, 2009.

Rodriguez, Richard. Brown: The Last Discovery of America. New York: Powell, 2002.