I painted my dream house in college. I have a yen for purple carpet, apparently.
Every time I am tempted to think that we are, as a human species, somehow inching up the ladder of microevolution and becoming better and brighter and stronger, something like the recent disasters in New Zealand and Japan occur, and the talking heads get started. Utterly horrifying to me are the alleged — and largely American — Christians who say that whatever fresh horror is somehow a karmic flashback on the Japanese people – though how Christians got involved with karma, which is strictly a fundamental doctrine in Buddhism and Hinduism, I have zero idea. Further mortifying humans with compassion, taste, and a sense of propriety are the people who can make jokes about the hundreds dead and still dying.
When I ask myself how it is that people can be so …basically wretched, the thought comes that our utter disregard for each other based on the usual suspects, ignorance and fear. Those are the key components to racism, and they poison so much of what we do. Sometimes I think we’re actually pretty wired toward racism, just with the way our language is formed.
(Maybe you’ll think this is reaching, but bear with me, please. This is one of those posts where I’m mostly thinking aloud. I have come to no solid conclusions, these are just — suppositions. Feel free to share your own.)
When I was a kid, I really hated that at church, dark or black was sin, and white was all good and God and righteousness. As a matter of fact, I purposefully referred to myself as “brown” to avoid the larger religious implications of not being washed “whiter than snow;” after all, brown wasn’t really specifically mentioned in Holy Writ! As a larger kid masquerading as an adult, I mostly understand why the dark/light/black/white thing came about, but I think it’s also prejudicial, in many ways, and that just like people have reconfigured versions of the religious writings to use less gender-divided language, it might be nice for people to take a look at limiting the use of black/white imagery to depict bad and good. On the other hand… it might not be possible to change some fundamental elements of how we think about color.
Alan Kennedy’s nifty Color/Language Project takes color idioms from myriad languages around the world, and explores what they mean. In English, someone who is green is either a.) inexperienced, b.) envious, or c.) environmentally conscious. In all kinds of languages, some colors are still a negative — take a look at just a few examples:
In Hindi, to place a black pot on the head is to bring disgrace on oneself; in Mandarin, a black pot on the back is to be scapegoated. Black work, in German, is to be working illegally. Black riding, in Dutch, is to ride public transportation without paying. For Swedes, the black disease is jealousy, for Norwegians, the black takes you when you go to hell, and in Japanese, to be black-bellied is to be deceitful. To make someone brown, in French, is to cheat them; brown doctors or lawyers are quacks, or crooked. In Spanish, to eat the brown is to be given unfair work, or blame. In Portuguese, a yellow smile is a fake smile, and in Russian a yellow house is an insane asylum. We can’t forget red’s association with anger, Communism, debt, or, in Spanish and Welsh, adult films (!). Colors are viewed pejoratively, and in some ways, the people whose ethnic background is tied to color words can be painted with that same pejorative brush.
I love language, and I am not at all suggesting that these color words shouldn’t be used or should somehow be changed or ignored. I am merely wondering if we aren’t maybe even more inclined to think badly of others, based on some of the color idioms in our speech. Yes, it’s specious to say that we don’t “see” color in this world, and color and ethnicity definitely adds richness and depth to our world — but I’m not sure that how we talk about it is working. Maybe we should stop with all the “red, and yellow, black and white,” and just think humans. And go on from there…
(Thoughts? Obviously, this is just a fragment of an idea, but it was ping-ponging around in my head, and now that it’s out, I hope I can get some work done…!)
Hat tip to Nancy Friedman at the quirky naming blog, Fritinancy, for the link to Alex Kennedy’s project. Yes, that’s Frit·i·nan·cy n. [From the Latin fritinnire, to twitter.] A chirping or creaking, as of a cricket. – Is that not the coolest blog name, EVER? That’s totally what they should have called Twitter. (This is why NANCY has the naming blog, and I don’t.)
Great post, Tanita. I empathized with your experiences as a girl in church around black = evil. The careless use of language is a growing problem, alas — Is now, was then, and I fear ever shall be.
And then there’s blue for 1.sadness 2. adult films 3. laws that prohibit certain activities because of alleged religious standards
But black, black, BLACK is the color of my true love’s hair!
I’m digging the colors in your dream house.
Have you ever read a book called Metaphors We Live By? If you haven’t, do–it was one that blew my mind in college.
One of the fun aspects of being one of two anthropology trained folks raising children together is introducing our children to metaphor in language, teaching them to notice it, be aware of it, and to try not to let it prejudice their thinking! We have also taught them the arbitrary nature of the linguistic sign, and other fun divertisments.
Moving specifically to “black” — I vaugly remember a picture book in which everthing at the end (bedtime) disolves into the warm, soft black of night; maybe if there were more picture books that played up this angle black would become more comfy.
Sometimes I wish I had gone with my urge junior year to change majors and go into sociology. I love this kind of thing. Thanks for the book rec.
I think the picture book to which you refer is Little Night, by Yuyi Morales… Night is beautiful, as is her daughter.