What Abstraction Can Teach Us About Race And The Sky Blue?

2011. “The New Jim Crow” Pp 217.-224 in Rethinking the Color Line, 5th Edition, edited by Charles Gallagher. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Most people do not see color as simply the way something looks, however. They tend to associate certain colors with specific feelings, emotions and memories. (Dmitrieva) For instance, blue is most commonly associated with “feeling blue” meaning one feels upset or depressed, however, blue is

In his essay, “The Souls of the Black Folk” Du Bois (1903) states that “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line,-the relation of the darker to lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea” (275). According to Appelrouth and Edles (2012: 269) “the color line is both a preexisting social and cultural structure and an internalized attitude”. In addition, they explain that the color line “addresses the historical and institutional (i.e., colonial) dimensions of race” (269).

Race as Class Herbert J. Gans Herbert J. Gans is a urban humanist and a group scholar. He is a liberal and among the extremist social researchers who are impacted by Marx-determined ideas. Gan's article "Race as Class" mirrors his liberal idealogy. Gans clarifies how he trusts a man's racial make-up is straightforwardly identified with their class status. The article is the writer's interpretation on how Americans take a gander at those they go over in the social world. It likewise calls attention to that a few minorities have moved toward becoming models for Western culture, what's more, that African Americans, being darker, are deliberately being kept down at the most minimal class. Gans trusts that a gigantic and maintained level of bigotry

Zora Hurston wrote the essay ‘How It feels to be colored” in the 1920s. It is important notice that during that period a strong and open discrimination against black people existed. Racial segregation and unfair treatment added more constraints which made it more difficult for others to see beyond the skin color. The author writes and divides the essay in four different sections. Each part narrates and explains her childhood experience, black heritage, discrimination, social status and how she sees the world around her. As a starting point, Hurston utilized a strong phrase to clearly self-differentiate from others when she says: “I’m the only negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother side was not an Indian Chief” (Hurston, 144). In the essay, she continuously emphasizes and express how proud she is of her heritage and constantly reminds us that we should be proud of who we are no matter the race, color or where we come from. What really matters is the contributions we as human beings can provide to the society where we live.

Zora Neale Hurston is unequivocally open about her race and identity in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.” As Hurston shares her life story, the reader is exposed to Hurston’s self-realization journey about how she “became colored.” Hurston utilizes her autobiographical short story as a vehicle to describe the “very day she became colored.” Race is particularly vital in Zora Neale Hurston’s essay, “How it Feels to Be Colored Me” as she deals with the social construct of race, racism, and sustaining one’s cultural identity.

The PBS series “Race: The Power of an Illusion” effectively works to expose race as a social construct and deconstructs the false notions that race is a biological marker. The series first discusses that all human beings originated from Africa but dispersed about 70,000 years ago to various places in the world. As a result of this migration, people were spread to different locations throughout the world with different environmental conditions that affected their physical traits. It was many years after the migration in which people began to display these new physical traits such as slanted eyes, fair skin, and differing hair textures. While the series notes the physical changes that occurred during the migration it also emphasizes that race while it may seem apparent in skin color and other physical features has no real biological basis.

Historical archives discovered by Dorman show that colorism had tangible boundaries within the African American community during the 1920s (47). It is stated that blacks often divided themselves into four subcategories which consisted of “black”, “brown”, “light brown”, and “yellow” Negros (Dorman 47). The above ranking would be listed in a hierarchy from “black” being at the bottom of the socially accepted hierarchy to the “yellow negro” being the most revered and desired socially.

Blue is not just a colour, rather, the colour blue is a way of life. In her essay ‘Bluets’ Maggie Nelson digs with her emotions to capture the colour blue through different perspectives of her experiences. Nelson writes 240 fragments of a collection of images to analyze and reflect on the physical colour of blue, and the feeling she encounters when she writes about her search for inspiration. She does a great job giving readers an insight in her journey finding research with colour blue and its impact her experiences. Thus, Nelson finds a relationship with the colour blue using specific details from her observation. She explores her ideas analyzing the way blue is a physical colour in objects and the way blue describes her feelings. Furthermore,

Although the color problem is sometimes incorporated as not an issue, it is something that stills is the talk of the town from time to time. The Categorizing of persons based on their skin complexion, is more or likely extremely rooted in the black perception. Many years ago dating back to slavery, the problem of someone’s skin color has been used for revenues of controlling and division.

She examines the colorblind approach to reaching a post-racial society. Using a very simple, yet elegant way of writing, Bostick clearly states that she believes this ideology is ineffective and does more harm than good. She supports her claim by referencing a recent tragedy concerning racism -- the death of Philando Castille, a black man from Minnesota. With a strong appeal to logos, Bostick discusses how this would have been less likely to happen if Castille was a white man. Through this evidence, Bostick is able to easily exemplify how taking a colorblind approach to racism avoids addressing social issues and oppression that people of color face. Bostick also addresses the damage that can be done by teaching children to be blind to race, saying that teaching people to not see color is essentially “stripping people of a fundamental aspect of their identity” and erases their history (par. 7). This text would be helpful in realizing that “acknowledging differences is not racist; it is the opposite of racist” and also in exploring the flaws with the colorblind ideology, as its effectiveness can be related to recent events surrounding the Black Lives Matters movement and issues with police brutality (par.

Many are unaware of the effects that race has played in their lives over the years. Some may not understand its implications, but are very oblivious to it. Race can influence such things like attitude and behavior. Nowadays being white or black means something more than just a Crayola color. No longer are they just colors, they are races with their own rules and regulations. People of color have been inferior to the white race for centuries. In their own way Zora Neale Hurston shows this concept in her story “How it feels to be Colored Me” as does Richard Wright in his autobiographical sketch “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow”.

The English term ‘race’ is believed to originate from the Spanish word raza, which means ‘breed’ or ‘stock’ (Race). People use race to define other groups, this separation of groups is based largely on physical features. Features like skin color and hair don’t affect the fundamental biology of human variation (Hotz). Race is truly only skin deep, there are no true biological separations between two ‘racial’ groups. Scientifically speaking, there is more variation between single local groups than there is between two large, global groups; the human variation is constantly altering (Lewontin). The majority of today’s anthropologists agree that race is a form of social categorization, not the separation of groups based on biological

In those years, racism was a strong and violent issue that not only referred to women but also to minorities such as black people, gays and single mothers. Today people are still struggle with these very issues. Racism in America is proving that this essay is sadly very relevant today and this minorities group reacts in different ways but always similar to Lorde’s description of poetry as a form of creativity as a class issue, thinking that in the 80’s poetry was the most economical way of communication. In recent years there has been an explosion of creativity by minority groups in form of: street-art, rap music, and

One of the most important observations anyone could make while viewing a painting is the artist’s delicate choice and use of colors. In paintings, colors serve two different but equally important purposes. One purpose is to draw attention to the painting, while the other purpose is to display emotions. An artist that understood the importance of color in paintings extremely well was the late talented Vincent Van Gogh. In his painting Café Terrace at Night, Van Gogh incorporates a vast array of colors to arouse emotions from within the audience. In order to assess which colors aroused which emotions two important questions must be answered. What emotions do the specific colors used within the painting give off to the audience? How have the emotions behind the colors been learned through normal human experience over time?