The Colour Palette of Racism

As a white English speaking mate, in the eyes of many, I am born privileged.

This was not by choice, though in the current times we live in, I admit I feel lucky.

I don’t usually get involved in passing judgement regarding debates around color, race or creed, however when we start seeing people of colour being killed by a white police officer, regardless of if they were guilty or not, it sometimes can be hard not to get involved.

Racism, regardless of if we consider ourselves racist or not, affects everyone on this planet in someway, or at least it should.

The colour of someone’s skin is not the problem. The problem is the system that defines it and brands us as white or coloured, and treats those classes with a different level of respect.

Now I’m not going to pretend I even understand how a coloured person in today’s society or the past feels to be segregated or persecuted by society for simply having a different skin pigmentation. 

I’ve been blessed with a great education, plenty of opportunities to succeed in any field I choose, and have never experienced any racial discrimination toward me...I am white.

But as a graphic designer and artist I have a good idea on how the colour spectrum works, and how the choice and use of colours can define your finished design.

And by looking at our world and class of people as a colour spectrum can help us define the world as a work of art.

If we look at the basis of colour, ‘white’ is not a colour, but a base which defines the brightness of other colours. There is technically only one shade of white unless another colour is mixed with it. 

And if we look at the world, there are many people that might look at the white population in a similar way. This is of course not my own personal view.

Black is not a colour but a pigment at the furthest end of the spectrum from white.

Black is a dominant colour, which can also define the depth of a colour.

And in between that we have the primary colours (races), secondary (cultures), and tertiary colours (communities).

The primary colours are their own colours, and the secondary and tertiary colours are made up of a combination of the primary, secondary colours, just like the cultures and races we evolved from.

So, much as in our society, we have the two dominant ends of the spectrum (black and white), which have both been tainted by other variations of colours.

 It irks me when we hear of someone being labeled ‘black’ or ‘white’ as there is no such thing. We are all people of colour, toned by our origins.

But imagine how boring the colour palette and work of an artist would be if they only created purely in black and white tones? Imagine a Picasso, a Dali or a Van Gogh if they were simply two dominating tones...just black and white.

When colours are added to the dominant tones it creates diversity, however when mixed incorrectly it can either create something amazing or a mess.

And our society is no different. We tend to paint people as a ‘black’ person or a ‘white’ person, and that is just wrong, as there are no pure white or black races. We all have coloured pigments...every single one of us. 

And these ‘pigmentations’ are not always defined by our skin colour. 

It could be a disability, a different cultural background, a different religious belief, we sound different, look different, have a speech impediment, a mental disorder, and so on. None of us are perfect, but it is these perfect imperfections that make us unique and diverse.

What we don’t see that they are all from the same palette.

And when mixed together we can become something unique that make-up a masterpiece.

But the underlying reason we don’t see this is that the tools are not in place to create this masterpiece.

We have governments that don’t put enough time, energy or money into an education system and program that is designed to unify not segregate. We still have cultures that persecute someone for being a particular gender, colour or creed.

And we have legal systems that throw unnecessary lethal force into the mix, blurring the colours, so they fight against each other.

This is simply called small-minded thinking from a previous era, and it is time it was amended.

And in this day and age it should not be so hard to see the bigger picture that diversity of colours can create a masterpiece.

Our governments are the artists. Our communities are the tools, and we are the colours.

Let’s all work together and start painting the masterpiece that we all want to be in, now and for future generations to enjoy.