Color

Colors are beautiful, captivating, and engaging. They enrich our world and make it a more pleasant place in which to live, breathe, work, and play. While I can and do appreciate something in black and white, I much prefer to have colors flowing freely through my world. Life without them would be dull, listless, and boring.

However, one set of colors that has always been and will always be contentious is the color of human beings. I am not really sure of the reason why, but I believe that it has to do with superiority and the clash of cultures. When God confounded the languages at the tower of Babel, everyone was the same color. Since they couldn’t understand each other, the different groups of people went their separate ways and colonized the rest of the earth. Over time, genes died out in some populations but survived in others. This genetic differentiation produced the wide array of skin colors that is now found in the human population. Skin color is as simple as this—genetic adaptation to a particular environment.

Culture and language are very closely tied together. They are so intertwined with each other as to be like two sides of the same coin. When two cultures meet, each one naturally believes his way to be the correct way. This belief has led to some violent clashes throughout history and the repercussions of these misunderstandings still reverberate in today’s times. Also, different cultures have thought of other cultures as backward, slow, or dimwitted. What they failed to see is the intelligence shown by the other culture in working towards the same goals as them but in a different manner. No one culture is superior to another.

With the onset of evolutionary thinking and propagandizing, along with lingering bitterness and anger, this concept of “our way” versus “their way” gradually changed into more sinister ideologies. The concept of race, as we know it today, was formed from those ideas. Races are defined mainly by the color of a people’s skin. When that idea became firmly entrenched in people’s mind, any person of color was seen as being less than human and could thus be treated accordingly. Sadly, most people that would never actively condone such actions passively stand by and do nothing because “that’s the way it’s always been”. Why should they change the way they view life even if it’s not the right way??

When something or someone comes along to challenge their view of life, these same people tend to get angry and lash out at the person or persons responsible. One of the most visible lightening rods of the 20^th century was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. While he was far from perfect, I admire him for taking a stand against prejudice and injustice based on the color of one’s skin. I am not going to debate nor discuss his whole life here, but one thing that has always stood out to me about his life was from his “I Have a Dream” speech.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."…

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be

judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. (Emphasis mine)

Is there any wonder that he was well thought of by blacks during those tumultuous times? He was daring to say publicly what they had felt and dreamed of for years. He was voicing their anguish and pain from years of injustice and hate. I would certainly look up to someone that was trying to help me get out of such deep pits of despair.

The world has come a long way from the days when people of color were looked down upon. I’m not saying that those ideas have totally disappeared. The work is still in progress. Sadly, even people of color have feelings of hate towards others of different skin tones. Therefore, we must all continue to strive towards the goal of judging a person by his character and using that as the basis for fellowship over the color of his skin.

Have a colorless day!