Color has become a very important attribute in our everyday lives. We determine what decor to purchase based off of our already established color scheme. The first decision made in planning a wedding is the colors. There is even a ring and nail polish that change colors based on our “moods.” The color of a particular fruit or vegetable will determine whether or not we will purchase it. Color is important in a lot of day-to-day decisions we make and we tend to even apply it to the skin color of others. To be colorblind is to be “unable to distinguish certain colors or any colors at all”, but it could also mean to “not be influenced by racial prejudice.” A lot of times people say that they are “colorblind” as it relates to the races or ethnicities of other people, but I do not buy it. Let us say that even if you were truly colorblind, you could still determine a individual’s race based off of the features they possess (i.e. full lips, slender nose, long fine hair). I will honestly tell people that I am not colorblind, that I see different races and ethnicities and skin tones everyday. I recognize these features and appreciate the beauty in their variety and vastness and at the same time intrigued by their homogeneity. It is important to not only acknowledge but to also value the dissimilarities among people. Let’s table that and get back to color. What is color really?
Color is the property possessed by an object of producing different sensations on the eye as a result of the way the object reflects or emits light.
One may say ‘Yes. Well, of course it is’ but Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a poet would disagree with you. Goethe developed a theory on how humans perceive color. The human eye can see color in the spectrum of red to violet. Red has a long wavelength and violet a short wavelength. These wavelengths excite the cone cells in the eye that the brain interprets as color. This does not include either infrared or ultraviolet, colors the eye does not normally perceive. In the human eye, we see color in the light being reflected off an object. Essentially, the color of an object or material is determined by the wavelengths it absorbs and those it reflects. An object has the color of the wavelengths it reflects; not the color it necessarily absorbs. A material that reflects all wavelengths of visible light appears white. A material that absorbs all wavelengths of visible light appears black. If that light shines on a red object, all the wavelengths except red are absorbed by the object. The red wavelength is reflected to our eye where the red receptor cones interpret it as red.
So let’s break that down a bit more using an orange.
If you really think about it is an orange really orange? Is a lime really green? If the color of an object is truly the color it reflects, then philosophically an orange is not really orange. It is every color but orange. The same would go for a lime and if you really ruminate on it, this applies to people. Brown people are not really brown; they are everything but brown. And, well, beige people (because no one is really white unless they are albino) are every color but beige. Some people would not apply this to race, but is not the basis of race based on color and skin tone? And if we apply Goethe’s theory, are ‘beige’ people really superior if in fact they are every color but beige, including brown? Are brown people really inferior if they are in fact every color but brown, including beige? Instead of valuing the different hues, shapes, sizes, tones, behaviors, etc. in other people, we hone in on them and assign superiority and inferiority based on certain characteristics. However, we are really all on the same leveled playing field trying to survive. So then does color really even matter if you’re truly every color but the color you reflect? If we all saw color this way, as a reflection of what is not, then would we see a beautiful rainbow in the people around us?
Food for thought.