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Ebele Ofoegbu
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*poofed*
December 8, 2004 - 05:31 AM
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*poofed*
This post was edited on: 2009-12-09 at 04:31 PM by: ebby
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Brian
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Re: Who decides who is coloured?
December 8, 2004 - 10:48 AM
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This is a very confusing issue here. I don't think we will ever pick the "correct" terms to describe groups of people. I asked someone last night if a non-white person has a little bit of white ancestry do they qualify as "white" just like, let's say a person with African ancestry, is called "black" even if they are mostly white or hispanic. This is a very challenging issue to make sense of in large part because the government (I guess mostly white!) doens't want to offend any one these days and tries to make every term as "politically correct" as possible. I am called a "white man" but I'm not actually white in color really and I am part Cherokee Indian. So what am I? ; )
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Cicero
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Re: Who decides who is coloured?
December 9, 2004 - 05:35 AM
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Mostly colorless people Transparent ones.
Ave Futuria
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Vladimir
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Why is the color important?
December 10, 2004 - 01:16 AM
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This is just a general observation. May not have a practical use, but Someone has made that distinction and now the point is not to erase it, but to accept it by offering the OTHER explanation of it to prevent discrimination.
If any meaning of the word "colored" should be offensive or humiliating, we should not rephrase the word "color" but the meaning it has in people's minds. It is slow process, sometimes, but beneficial to all. I learned that the change of meaning begun with Beat / Hippie generation "Black is Beautiful!" and many more actions to relief the tension between people of color and "transparent" or "colorless" as someone said
Hippy Quotes http://www.hippy.com/hippyquotes.htm
One way to relief is the psychological meaning of colors, maybe?
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/colors1.html
So if you do not think of it as a discrimination but work to be understood as another variation, enrichment, you will make small step towards big change of not feeling bad about color differences even if they are there. The same is for the gender, or looks, or the clothes we wear, everything has it value. If we get over the color of the SKIN, we could imagine the day when we would be "sorted out" by the colors that we prefer and their MEANING to us and the others...
For example
GREEN
Currently the most popular decorating color, GREEN symbolizes nature. It is the easiest color on the eye and can improve vision. It is a calming, refreshing color. People waiting to appear on TV sit in "green rooms" to relax. Hospitals often use green because it relaxes patients. Brides in the Middle Ages wore green to symbolize fertility.
BLACK
Black is the color of authority and power. It is popular in fashion because it makes people appear thinner. It is also stylish and timeless. Black also implies submission. Priests wear black to signify submission to God.
WHITE
Brides wear white to symbolize innocence and purity. White reflects light and is considered a summer color. White is popular in decorating and in fashion because it is light, neutral, and goes with everything. However, white shows dirt and is therefore more difficult to keep clean than other colors. Doctors and nurses wear white to imply sterility. In the East it is the color of sorrow.
RED
The most emotionally intense color, red stimulates a faster heartbeat and breathing. It is also the color of love. Red clothing gets noticed and makes the wearer appear heavier. Since it is an extreme color, red clothing might not help people in negotiations or confrontations. Red cars are popular targets for thieves.
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Zorica Vukovic
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Who decides of future decisions?
December 10, 2004 - 01:45 AM
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The diversity is trapped into the paradox of promising equality at the same time dividing people by the color of their skin - like someone would divide us in groups by our height or size of our feet - and this is not naive when the connotation of the meaning of "color" is add to this divide.
It has deep roots of discrimination, and still this divide lives in ordinary and inevitable questionnaires and forms where we are conditioned to fill in our "color" as well as our name and address. The colorless world would be Utopia the differences will always be visible and the only way is to decide about the decision and to STOP it somewhere! The way it begun, should be decided to stop on the highest instance of democratic will. If there was the first FORM and the REASON for making this divide, there must be somewhere the last in the row of those forms. On one discussion board someone said cleverly:
WHY DON"T WE JUST SKIP TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION (whenever possible)
There is also the option "Other" in some forms that enquire about your ethnicity, but in general, we should stand AGAINST any form that asks for ethnical definitions. Why should we accept that being whatever color?
Here are few articles of artistic, personal or politically engaged reference to this issue of color, declaring its place in a society:
http://www.pih.org.uk/articles/growing.html
My experiences have opened my eyes. They have shown me that racism is a system we live in - consciously or not. We're all prone to it's sneaky influence. It's comforting to feel superior; it's satisfying to blame others for our own misfortunes or shortcomings; and being part of a gang can boost your confidence no end. But I'm aiming for a self-confidence that comes from love, not fear. Something inclusive that allows me to feel happy with myself and about other people. I've been forced to realise that my true allegiance is with everybody. Nationality is arbitrary; countries can change their shape or character (what does it mean to be British today?); colour is in the eye of the beholder. But I'm still me. Now when I catch sight of my skin I get a warm, tender feeling. Not pride, but a kind of twinkling delight. It's me and everything I've been through. It's a perfect fit.
Ishraga Lloyd (© Copyright 1999 Lloyd)
http://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/socin/socin029.htm
"Ethnic Preferences and Social Engineering: How Not to Fix the Problem
Many people, of all colors and ethnic groups, reject discrimination and would like to see a society free of prejudice. Unfortunately, it is common for those who seek to eradicate bigotry to share some of the outlook of those they oppose, both in their view of differences between people and in the means they favor to eliminate ethnic inequity. They tend to share an unwillingness to see others as individuals instead of members of groups and both camps favor the use of government action and coercion to promote their agendas. Until such attitudes are replaced with a commitment to individuality and a rejection of force, efforts to create an equitable society are doomed to failure."
© 2004: Libertarian Alliance; Joe Peacott.
I too hope that COLOR will live in near future only in debate on CRAYOLA Multicultural Crayons
http://king-of-fools.com/blog/weblog/posts/crayola_skin/
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Soph
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Re: Who decides who is coloured?
December 10, 2004 - 06:11 AM
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Does ethnicity really matter? I know that culture and stuff goes into defining your beliefs as a person, but when you get down to it, there's good and bad people of every group, so does it matter?
Racism is always around. Sometimes it's subtle, sometimes not. None of us can help judging people on first sight unless we're blind. You automatically do. It's probably a survival reflex-if you can't tell a predator on first sight, you're a goner. So that's why we do it, but it's not always a good thing...I guess the only way around it is to try and keep an open mind.
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Cicero
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Re: Who decides who is coloured?
December 11, 2004 - 05:07 AM
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Racism sux. It really a prejudice, based on a nagative opinion on others.
Ave Futuria
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Kimberly Sanchez
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why should color be improtant
December 17, 2004 - 03:10 AM
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When people through people together as a color as in brown, Black and white or when they through people together by their race like mexican, Native American, Cuban and a whole bunch of other stuff like that it sucks. because they think that people of a different color or race are lower than them i reality we are just as good as them. i am a mexican and hate it when people treat me like i'm mental or somting like that i am not mental i am getting an a in algebra 2 so there! anyways i think that racisim sucks and the people who think like that just want or need attention.
So please cut don on the racisim and stuff. K
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Z
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Re: Who decides who is coloured?
December 18, 2004 - 05:43 AM
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I agree that prejudice is an awful thing and not deserved for the people who receive it.
Why there is prejudice is because of history. In history, the white men were considered superior. Black people were considered animals.
But I also don't understand why people differentiate between people as red, yellow, black, white, etc. I mean, look at me, I would be considered olive in many people's point of view. But does my skin color really matter? There is no such THING as a right or wrong color. Actually this differentaition between people using colors is so stupid that I can't explain it. I can find the source but the reason, nope, I can't find it. It's because the reason is so illogical and superstitious. If we knew the correct reason, I know we would all laugh aloud because of the stupidity of it. So I don't think this should be a major issue.
Because we are people of high standards (mentally) and we all have high goals. So why cover our spirit's wings with the dust of this earth? We musn't be like a chicken, who always looks down at the earth to look for food. We must be the eagle, or the albatross, who can fly and find food in higher places.
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Lim
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Monet and Tomato
December 22, 2004 - 07:33 AM
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In my humble point of view, my ego, which is the al-mighty "I" or watashi or Saya decide the colour. When there are millions of "I"s. They decide the colour according to their leader etc. Colour is decide by painters.So how do the painter control the colour? I love painting and I understand which colour suits best for the picture that I am painting.
At the same time, it is also plainly obvious that the one who claim that one country is first nation,the good and angelic country, etc etc...is the painter.
A painter can have its biased.
Shirley McSalad
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vinod
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Reference points
January 14, 2005 - 03:25 AM
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THAT is a really important question you've asked... "who decides?"...
It has a lot to do with reference points or starting points. Imagine a line that represents time... you can choose any point on that line as your starting point for your opinion (based on your own situation). Some will choose a point on the line earlier than yours and others will choose a point later than yours. And then we will all build elaborate structures around those arbitrarily chosen points. Which we will then proceed to defend with all the strength we have! We are all looking at the same thing from different angles... and we all call our verson the TRUTH! And it IS... but based only on our own reference points.
The answer to your question lies somewhere in this idea... do not be swayed by the words of someone who has appropriated (often through violence) a culture/ethnicity/nationality/whatever and refuses to allow it to evolve.
Cultures evolve... someone adds something to it all the time!
Being 'white' is also a culture. Even the concept of 'white' itself has changed over time... the first ever human beings originated in Africa according to studies of human fossils... aren't we all 'black' under the skin then? People evolved over thousands of years based on the climatic conditions of places they moved to. Check out this link for more... http://www.africagenome.co.za/2003_press/021129_evolution.html
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Reubertochter
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Re: Who decides who is coloured?
January 26, 2005 - 02:15 AM
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i am a girl who is only half german, and so you dont really recognise it because i am physically more of an indian. I wear combat boots. And almost everyday people in the bus make wierd comments : why is a foreigner wearing combat boots, its prolly because of her skin colour...or, haha, look at her face and her shoes..etc.
Its like there is this big shelf in everyones mind where there are many many little drawers and each drawer has a label for eg. Nazis - combat boots. Punks - wierd haircut.
and when someone sees you they place you in one of those drawers. People choose for you.
Mostly they are in groups, and then the feel strong, everyone does, so do i. when i hang around with punks i make fun of some loney "nazi" standing in the rain. i know it isnt right, but it just shows there are two sides of everything and that you feel strong in groups. i am no angel.
Once in india i was beaten up because the street children thought i were sum foreigner cause i was wearing trousers and not a skirt. Even though, i always tried to fit into the culture.
Coloured or not coloured. Male or Female. A bookworm or a sports freak. Everywhere there a re rasict like comments. For everything there is a little drawer, everywhere.
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vinod
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Re: Who decides who is coloured?
January 28, 2005 - 02:06 AM
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I agree with your statement that these shelves exist everywhere. I just feel that these shelves are our own creations and each time we put someone in a category we strengthen it. The choice is ours. We can choose to have boundaries that only serve as distinguishing factors and not to keep people out. If every culture or 'shelf' as you call it had disallowed ANY change to take place, humanity would have stagnated long back. Change is inevitable... but the choice is ours whether we want to allow change to come in easily or with much struggle.
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Jessie Giles
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Re: Who decides who is coloured?
February 16, 2005 - 01:51 AM
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Just a thought on the colour of people.....
I hate the use of "colous" to descibe people coz really if you were going to get into distinguishing people by colour then it wouldn't just be black, brown, white but blueish black, chocolate, reddish black, pink, yellow, peach, light brown, grey, tan, light rose, light pink, black black, etc. etc........ you get my point??
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Jennifer Rong
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who decides who is coloured?
March 7, 2005 - 05:04 AM
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you know i actually don't argee with the whole issue on who is coloured and who isn't. In my opinion it's like saying that if you don't have brown eyes then you can't be in a certain group. it doesn't really make any sense at all. why should people treat people differently just because of their skin colour? in reality only 0.000000000...1% of our genes are different from everybody else, so why do we bother to discriminate against others due to it?In any case for example if a person goes sunbathing and becomes tanned would we say that because that person who is tanned is now better because their skin is now darker? in actual fact they are still just the same person but a bit darker now.
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