&nbsp;

Well&hellip; this is gonna make a lot of people mad...

This is going to be uncomfortable, VERY uncomfortable. But I&rsquo;m going to be nice to you and ease you into this subject, not because I care about your feelings, but because it took me a long time to construct this article, and I&rsquo;d like you to give it your time to reflect on what I have to say.&nbsp;

First, let&rsquo;s start by differentiating the definitions of &ldquo;race&rdquo; and &ldquo;color.&rdquo;

Race: A human classification of a distinct population that is often based on the geographic location of that population&#39;s ancestry and/or that population&rsquo;s hereditary phenotype.&nbsp;

Color: As it pertains to human skin, color is the specific shade and tone of one&rsquo;s epidermis&hellip; I&rsquo;ve always wanted to use that word.&nbsp;

Now it&rsquo;s important to remember that race is a social construct. This in no way diminishes its effects on the lives of human beings around the world. In fact, it makes it even more important as social constructs govern how fluidly we are (or are not) able to move through the world in the name of survival. These colors used as human classifications were treated as science and given a great deal of accolade when, in truth, they were just white supremacy coded as fact.&nbsp;

SIDE NOTE: Race is NOT the same as Ethnicity or Nationality. These three are completely different. Also, one&#39;s skin color doesn&rsquo;t not necessarily determine one&#39;s race. I know, it&rsquo;s confusing; blame white supremacy.

&nbsp;

<h2>BLACK</h2>

The racial group with the most label variations within the American English language, black people began the conversation regarding which labels were appropriate in the 1950s and 1960s. Civil rights leaders of the time wanted a term that represented their systemically opposing relationship to white people, while also disassociating them from slavery, discrimination, and concepts of second class citizenship. The term &lsquo;black&rsquo; is translated from the Spanish and Portuguese word &lsquo;negro,&rsquo; which was introduced around 1442. &lsquo;Negro&rsquo; is derived from the latin word &lsquo;niger,&rsquo; which is likely derived from the Proto-Indo European word &lsquo;nek&rsquo; meaning &ldquo;to be dark,&rdquo; a word likely derived from the word &lsquo;nok&rsquo; meaning &ldquo;night.&rdquo;&nbsp;

<h2>BROWN</h2>

German pseudoscientist Johann Friedrich Blumenback was the first on record to invent and widely use the term &lsquo;brown,&rsquo; the racial classification that includes the largest number of people. The word &lsquo;brown&rsquo; in regard to racial classification has often been used as a neutral term to describe a person of color who is not dark-skinned African or light-skinned East Asian, and its usage varies from culture to culture with no fixed definition. The term &lsquo;brown&rsquo; gained popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries and included people from Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Pattani, Sumatra, and Taiwan. Polynesians and Melanesians of Pacific Islands, as well as Papuans and Aborigines of Australia were also included. In 1775 the label &lsquo;light brown&rsquo; was created to include Southern Europeans, Sicilians, Abyssinians, the Spanish, Persians, Turks, and Laplanders. Tartars, Africans on the Mediterranean, and the Chinese were added to the &lsquo;brown&rsquo; label. More, and more, and MORE ethnic groups were added to this category until these theories were scientifically debunked. In the 20th and 21st centuries, &lsquo;brown&rsquo; is no longer considered a scientific racial classification and is thought to be biologically invalid (as if they aren&rsquo;t all invalid in a biological sense), and is mostly used for sociological and interpersonal purposes.

<h2>RED</h2>

Native Americans and European colonizers didn&rsquo;t often mention the color of each other&rsquo;s skins (at least from what surviving histories maintain), so the origins of color terminology used to describe Natives in English is arguably unclear. While skin color labels are thought to have entered everyday speech somewhere around the mid-18th century, it was as early as&nbsp; the 17th century that similar terms were used in anthropological literature. Despite it&rsquo;s flimsy roots, the term &lsquo;red&rsquo; is used derogatorily and regularly in association with many sports team mascots that depict Native imagery.&nbsp;

<h2>YELLOW</h2>

Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus was the first to apply the word &lsquo;yellow&rsquo; as a means to specifically label East Asians (who, prior to this, had actually been labeled &lsquo;white&rsquo; by Marco Polo). At first, Linnaeus used the Latin adjective &lsquo;fuscus,&rsquo; meaning &ldquo;dark,&rdquo; to describe the skin color of Asians. But in the tenth edition of his 1758-1759 Systema Naturae, he enhanced his terminology with the latin word &lsquo;luridus,&rsquo; meaning &ldquo;light yellow&rdquo; or &ldquo;pale.&rdquo; &lsquo;Luridus&#39; also means &ldquo;ghastly&rdquo; or &ldquo;horrifying.&rdquo; Unlike the other color terms, &lsquo;yellow&rsquo; is considered a largely outdated racial descriptor and is rarely used anymore.

SIDE NOTE: As I&rsquo;m writing this, I&rsquo;m realizing how it might be indicative of light skinned privilege that, of all the racialized color terms used to describe people of color, that &lsquo;yellow&rsquo; is the one that is more or less retired due to its offensiveness. But I&rsquo;m getting ahead of myself...

<h2>WHITE&nbsp;</h2>

&lsquo;White&rsquo; is rooted in the Old English &lsquo;hwit,&rsquo; meaning &ldquo;bright, clear, radiant, and fair&rdquo; as well as &ldquo;morally pure.&rdquo; White, as it pertains to skin color, was first used in 1600, and in 1852 it was used for the first time in connection with white people specifically. The term &lsquo;white&rsquo; was used for the first time in 1868 in Dr. John H. Van Evrie&rsquo;s publication White Supremacy and Negro Subordination to reference both white people and their subjugation of non-white people.&nbsp;

I&rsquo;m really only giving you these definitions to broaden your thinking on the topic, but also to ease any confusion you might have regarding the history of the connections between race and color language. Because the awareness of these terms and their histories will make the task of following this article&#39;s weighted topic a bit easier.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

<h1>COLORISM</h1>

A discriminatory practice based on the color, shade, and tone of someone&rsquo;s skin, especially within the range of &ldquo;light to dark.&rdquo; The term is widely thought to have been coined by Alice Walker in an essay from her 1983 book titled In Search of Our Mothers&#39; Gardens.

Now, before we continue dissecting colorism, there is something you need to know that will affect how I&rsquo;m going to ask you to think going forward. And that is that whiteness (as it pertains to color, people, culture, and supremacy within the realm of race) is about PURITY&hellip; or rather the illusion of it. So much of how colorism functions has to do with how much proximity one&rsquo;s physical appearance aligns with the standards of whiteness, but being proximate to whiteness is not the same as being white.

And it never will be.&nbsp;

That being said, having white proximity comes with many privileges. People with lighter skin (especially if it is gained via white parentage) often see greater career success, social status, more relationship options, and more access to institutional space and resources than their dark skinned community members. For black people in the states, this has roots that go as far back as slavery, when lighter skinned slaves (who were the result of a slave master raping his female slaves) often got domestic positions working inside the master&rsquo;s home, whereas darker skinned slaves were forced to work outside. This was due to the fact that slave masters assumed that having darker skin meant you were more suited to hard labor, thereby perpetuating the idea that lightness (especially if attained via white parentage) is more delicate, fragile, intelligent, and worthy of protection. Granted, they were all still slaves owned by white people who would have happily killed or sold them on a whim. This is why it is also important to interrogate the fetishization of interracial relationships and the children who are a product of them. There is an ugly, painful history here, and no amount of biracial deification is going to erase that, it also puts a huge burden on biracial children to &ldquo;end racism&rdquo; by way of being born&hellip; like, WHAT?!?

SIDE NOTE: Hey white people reading this, just because you married, fucked, or have children with a person of color DOESN&rsquo;T MEAN YOU CAN&rsquo;T BE RACIST!!! It&rsquo;s 2020, get your shit together!

We expect this behavior from white culture, but what we still have yet to truly reckon with is how people of color have internalized these toxic ideas and turned them inward. See, the thing about white supremacy is that it has this way of infecting everything, from systems and institutions, to cultures, communities, and interpersonal relationships. That&rsquo;s what supremacy is; it&rsquo;s the dominant culture&hellip; and white supremacy IS a culture. For example, in the 20th century, many black churches, greek organizations, and nightclubs would instate the &lsquo;paper bag test&rsquo;, where members of these groups would literally HOLD A BROWN PAPER BAG UP TO SOMEONE&rsquo;S SKIN, and the lightness or darkness of their skin in comparison to that paper bag would determine their admittance to elite parts of black society. That is a learned behavior, and white supremacy teaches it even to this day.&nbsp;

Colorism&#39;s main goal is to distance people of color from blackness without allowing them to attain the power of whiteness, yet still encouraging them to strive for it. It&rsquo;s also a means to turn people of color against each other by creating resentment and competition for access to resources (because it&rsquo;s hard to start the uprising amidst infighting). Even if the people of color in questions aren&rsquo;t identified as black, colorism is a form of anti-blackness that can be found in every culture. White supremacy frames blackness as its opposite, and that brings us full circle back to the concept of &ldquo;binary thinking&rdquo; that has been the core of this entire series.&nbsp;

As I said before, white supremacy and whiteness in general is about purity. It doesn&rsquo;t give merit to halves and mixtures, it doesn&rsquo;t honor the nuances of racial identity unless it can market those nuances to propagate itself. This intentionally leaves no room to confront the dark histories of racial mixing and the continued realities of colorism as social capital that serves to protect and benefit white people. This puts all people of color in some precarious situations: if your skin is dark, then colorism marginalizes you; if your skin is light then colorism fetishizes and tokenizes you. Ultimately, white supremacy wins.&nbsp;

Every community is guilty of colorism. EVERY SINGLE ONE. People unspokenly use the paper bag test to determine admittance into friend groups. Lightness and darkness are used to denote masculinity and femininity when depicting women of color on TV and in movies and often determines the women who are considered worthy of romantic affection. And when white people seek to find a token to shield them from accusations of racism in the workplace, they bring in the lightest person of color they can find, knowing that most people aren&rsquo;t racially literate enough to question their true intentions. Colorism was invented so that white people could center themselves within the communities and narratives of people of color; they see themselves reflected in that lighter skin. It&rsquo;s another way for white people to make something about them, without taking responsibility for the damage it does to people of color. And while there are plenty of people of color who will lean into this for their own individual benefit, at the end of the day, they will never be white and will be discarded by the system as soon as they are no longer considered useful or if they step out of line.&nbsp;

So, what are the solutions? This can&rsquo;t be allowed to go on anymore, and it&rsquo;s a form of racism that often gets overlooked because it is just a tad too nuanced for anyone who doesn&rsquo;t know anything about it to wrap their heads around. The truly difficult part to overcome is that many people of color engage in colorism and are unwilling to let it go because it gives them power similar to white privilege. But nevertheless, what if it is something you want to combat within yourself and within your community? Listening to the experiences of people with darker skin is a good place to start, but some more proactive moves would be to take a hard look at the racial dynamics within your workplace and interpersonal relationships. If you notice colorism, call it out. If you are a person of color who discovers you are being used as a token for your skin color, call it out and refuse to participate in white supremacist systems that seek to use you and throw you away once they&rsquo;ve met their diversity quota. If you are being accused of colorism, take a good hard look around you and rebuild the systems in your life, not only to include darker skinned people but to make sure they are safe and comfortable in that environment. It makes no sense to integrate different kinds of people if a system of toxicity is still thriving when they get there. Remember, forms of marginalization, like colorism, affect the most vulnerable people within a community. Women, especially trans women, bear the brunt of colorism in every community of color. Lighter skin is associated with femininity, goodness, and beauty and is seen as something worthy of praise and protection. And as with all forms of binary thinking, the less privileged are met with violence, degradation, and hatred. Hell, if you want to see a contemporary example of this, watch Pose.

Colorism is one of the results of people literally &ldquo;not seeing color.&rdquo; And since we are now living in a time where we are contending with the consequences of a racist society, it is time to fully contend with this too. We have a lot of work to do, and if we go too fast without taking time to untangle ourselves from our own white supremacist conditioning, we will build a new world that looks very similar to the old one.

&nbsp;

This article is the fourth&nbsp;in a series. Check out the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mplsart.com/written/2020/04/kaleidoscope-eyes-intro-to-color-theory">Intro to Color Theory</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mplsart.com/written/2020/04/kaleidoscope-eyes-the-color-pink">The Color Pink</a>, &amp;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mplsart.com/written/2020/05/kaleidoscope-eyes-pride-flags-and-when-color-theory-falls-apart">Pride Flags and When Color Theory Falls Apart</a>.

Amina&nbsp;Harper is an artist, writer, and educator based in the Twin Cities. For more info and to see her work, visit<a href="https://aminaharper.wixsite.com/aminaharper/" target="_blank">&nbsp;her website</a>&nbsp;or follow&nbsp;her on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amina.harper/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.

Banner image: Fred Wilson;&nbsp;Grey Area (Brown version); paint, plaster, &amp; wood; 20 x 84&quot;; 1993. Photo source: Brooklyn Museum.

In the fourth installment of her series on Color Theory, Harper unpacks the concepts of race, color, privilege, and how they have been weaponized.

Kaleidoscope Eyes: A Crazy Little Thing Called Colorism

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Okay, let me level with you. I&rsquo;ve been dreading this day for a long time now, and in anticipation for it I tried, I tried so hard to discern a language from our contemporary pride flags and I just couldn&rsquo;t do it. Simply put, the colors are all over the place, and the ones that aren&rsquo;t, are contradicting their intended purpose.

A lot of it has to do with the fact that pride flag color language isn&rsquo;t universal, and every country has their own variation of each pride flag. And when I say &ldquo;each&rdquo; I mean that there are so many pride flags that there is no way on earth any two flags with the same meaning, even from the same country, would look exactly the same. I really stepped in it this time.

<img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/cdn.mplsart.com/file_container/RmlsZUNvbnRhaW5lch4fMjUzNDYwMDAx/full.jpg" />Source: Wikipedia

First, let&rsquo;s talk about the flag, what it is and what it does. Aside from representing one&#39;s nation, a flag denotes ownership in the purest sense. When you plant or post a flag in the soil you are telling all those who see it that this land belongs to you. That usage and definition doesn&rsquo;t necessarily change because of the hand holding the flag. The flag and its functions are deeply rooted in colonialism, and it makes perfect sense that, in an attempt to assert identity and elevate representation, we use the tools of the dominant forces within our society (ie: colonialism). This doesn&rsquo;t mean that pride flags are tools of colonialism;&nbsp;it means that flags, as a tool of colonialism, are a confusing tool to use when showcasing the beautiful fluidity and diversity of the queer community. This is also perhaps a reason why the flags designs are so all over the place.&nbsp;

Now, there is a very sound argument in favor of the idea that pride flags aren&rsquo;t about colors at all, but about representation for the wide spectrum of LGBT+ identities out there and that each one deserves to be seen and the cultures they represent respected; and that is 100% valid and true. But we still got all these colors and symbols to contend with, and it&rsquo;s the colors that are doing the bulk of the representing, so it really benefits the community to have some kind of a language that is&nbsp;easily understandable so that the members of those communities can find the banner they feel best represents them, right?&nbsp;

So&nbsp;let&rsquo;s try. Let&rsquo;s try to uncover what pride flags are really communicating (or are trying to communicate), and maybe this will help us understand how the communities they represent see themselves.&nbsp;

First, let&rsquo;s start with the rainbow flag that we all know and love. Designed by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker, the first rainbow pride flag made its debut on June 25, 1978. It has been revised many times due to fabric availability, and the complexities with the hand dying and hand sewing process. The original flag looked like this&hellip;

<img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/cdn.mplsart.com/file_container/RmlsZUNvbnRhaW5lch4fMjIzMjYwMDAx/full.jpg" />

Source: <a href="https://gilbertbaker.com/rainblow-flag-color-meanings/" target="_blank">gilbertbaker.com</a>

What I think a lot of people don&rsquo;t know about the original pride flag is that each color represented ideas and values that the LGBT+ communities held both then and now.

PINK = Sex 
RED = Life 
ORANGE = Healing 
YELLOW = Sunlight 
GREEN = Nature 
TURQUOISE = Magic and Art 
INDIGO = Serenity 
VIOLET = Spirit

And I think it&rsquo;s this lack of knowledge of LGBT+ history,&nbsp;mixed with discrimination that happens within the LGBT+ community&nbsp;that causes a lack of representation of certain identities, that muddled up the meanings of the current flags we have now that are all offshoots of this original one. There now seems to be this reading of pride flags that suggest the colors represent, not community values, but genders, specifically male (often represented by blue) and female (often represented by variations of pink). You can see these readings in the trans*, lesbian, some interpretations of the bisexual, and pansexual flags respectively. The problem with these usages of color is that they are counter to the idea that gender and sexuality are fluid and therefore cannot, should not, and do not subscribe to binary ways of thinking.&nbsp;However, using two colors as they pertain to antiquated binary understandings of gender contradicts these ideas. Not only that, but binary language is, in general, dangerous as it places one of two terms in a privileged and dominant position over the other, therefore governing the definition of the less privileged term in its own context.&nbsp;

For example, you know what a​ WOMAN&nbsp;is by knowing what she is not:&nbsp;a&nbsp;MAN. Just like you know what GAYNESS&nbsp;is because it isn&rsquo;t &nbsp;STRAIGHT.​ This is how something culturally&nbsp;OTHERED&nbsp;becomes defined by the cultural &nbsp;DOMINANT​.

Pride flags use this color coded and gendered language because binary language is what we in the western world were conditioned toward. But today, we are slowly learning that such language is limiting and can&rsquo;t accommodate the nuance of human identity. Even when we aren&rsquo;t using it to directly harm, if we want to be free from it we have to deconstruct it in our culture and in our art. This includes the banners we make to represent ourselves. This does not mean that individual pride flags shouldn&rsquo;t exist, though it would be nice if we didn&rsquo;t feel we needed them.

Outside of blue and pink, the other color codes in modern pride flags are inconsistent. This is where I think the confusion really starts, because I realized that not only do people not know what the original flag colors mean, they started assuming the colors represented the wide and ever increasing spectrum of sexual orientation labels and/or gender descriptors. This didn&rsquo;t take potential overlap into account, so you have instances where the same color in two different flags don&rsquo;t share a definition, or where two different colors have the same definition.&nbsp;

For example, the bisexual flag suggests that the pink (representing gayness) overlaps with the blue (representing straightness) to make purple (representing the combination of gayness and straightness, equaling bisexuality). But there are many flags where straightness is represented by the color black and gayness (or queerness in general) is represented by the entire rainbow spectrum, excluding pink. Another example is the pansexual flags yellow representing non-binary people, while the white of the trans flag represents the same thing. You see how confusing and frustrating this can be for a color theory nerd?

Now, there is an argument to be made that would suggest that sexuality and gender are fluid, so doesn&rsquo;t it make sense that the colors used in their individual flags be fluid, too? On a surface level? Sure, that makes sense. But if that fluidity was truly present in pride flags, then why attempt to subscribe to color coded language in the first place? Why attempt to use a color to label an identity in the first place when said identities are so fluid?&nbsp;

You could also argue that the intensity of the colors are different and therefore represent different things. And yes, the pink and blue in the bisexual flag is very different from the pink and blue in the pansexual flag, but that would really only serve to prove that the queer community, as a whole, is more distant than we realize if there isn&rsquo;t even a conversation happening between subcultures regarding the color language and color history of the flags that represent us. Because I didn&rsquo;t know a lot of these things before I started researching them, and I would gather that the majority of queer people don&rsquo;t know them either.&nbsp;

I honestly don&rsquo;t know if this is &ldquo;okay&rdquo;, or not. But I do think it deserves thought and critique now that we are living in a time when we are getting more queer representation than ever. We shouldn&rsquo;t only ask questions about how others see us, but how we see ourselves in relation to the culture that bore us.

In the next article, we will confront the culture that bore us through a racial lens, and talk about how skin color moves us through the world, whether we like it&nbsp;or not.

This article is the third in a series. Check out the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mplsart.com/written/2020/04/kaleidoscope-eyes-intro-to-color-theory">Intro to Color Theory</a>&nbsp;&amp; <a href="https://www.mplsart.com/written/2020/04/kaleidoscope-eyes-the-color-pink">The Color Pink</a>.

Amina&nbsp;Harper is an artist, writer, and educator based in the Twin Cities. For more info and to see her work, visit<a href="https://aminaharper.wixsite.com/aminaharper/" target="_blank">&nbsp;her website</a>&nbsp;or follow&nbsp;her on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amina.harper/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.

Banner image photo by George Becker&nbsp;/&nbsp;Pexels, altered for this article.

Continuing her series on color theory, artist Amina Harper unpacks the history and muddled meanings of Pride flags.

Kaleidoscope Eyes: Pride Flags and When Color Theory Falls Apart

I once heard a character in a movie say &quot;color is for children and whores.&rdquo;&nbsp;I found this ironic years later&nbsp;as the character who uttered this bizarre sentiment was a woman OF COLOR. But unintended media depictions of self-loathing aside, I digress.&nbsp;

Hatred of&nbsp;not only a select few colors&nbsp;but of color as a whole&nbsp;is a&nbsp;practice&nbsp;that is common but not widely discussed. Colors, especially in their vibrant, saturated, lush, and jewel-toned varieties, are often seen as tacky, gaudy, garish,&nbsp;campy, tawdry, and tasteless by those with more conservative sensibilities. And maybe this is my own bias speaking, but when I hear language like that I imagine some suitably conservative WASP passive-aggressively propagating verbal disdain for aesthetics that are rooted in black, brown, queer, and feminine cultures and communities that are not considered economically advantageous.

In other words, white supremacy.

I say this because as we are speaking about color hatred, it is a great segue&nbsp;into a discussion of Pink, the most widely hated color on the spectrum. Now, I personally LOVE the color pink. However, growing up I got deeply made fun of for my love of it, to the point where whenever I was asked about my favorite color I would lie and say &quot;red.&quot;&nbsp;Ever since the age of about five, I wondered why this was. For example, one of the main questions I had was why black Barbies always wore blue while the white, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Barbies were always in pink. Even as a small child, I knew that binary color language was sending me messages about masculinity and femininity and what kind of women are allowed to inherit the benefits of that narrow depiction of womanhood. Granted, on the rare occasions I was gifted Barbies, I usually cut their hair and sent them on fictional lesbian adventure where questions of pink and blue gender hierarchy were never addressed. My childhood was amazing.

<img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/cdn.mplsart.com/file_container/RmlsZUNvbnRhaW5lch4fMjQ3MjkwMDAx/full.jpg" />Pinking shears at work.

Historically, the word &ldquo;pink&rdquo; or &ldquo;pinking&rdquo; was a verb first used during the 14th century to describe the act of decorating by way of frilling, or creating perforated edges in material. Pink made its way into fashion as a color around the 18th century due to European monarchs&#39; appreciation for pastels, and fashion trends associated the color with sexuality and nudity (NOTE: White nudity). Lingerie in shades of pale pink became increasingly common; the color was also linked to clothing worn by prostitutes. Once the 19th century rolled around, it had largely become&nbsp;associated with women and children. There was a period in which pink was asociated with boys, but it was short-lived, and the cause for the shift back to pink in connection with girlhood was a simple one:&nbsp;marketing. Prior to the 1920s, men were associated with the aggression and power of red, and women with the tranquil docility of blue. (Blue was also deeply associated with the Virgin Mary.)&nbsp;It made sense to the ad men of the day to lighten the colors to represent the children of those respective genders: pink for boys, baby blue for girls. But in the 1930s and &#39;40s, they noticed that parents started buying pink items for girls and blue items for boys, and the 1950s cemented this gender divide via marketing. Pink became the color for sweet innocent young girls&nbsp;and mild-mannered and docile young women and mothers. Mind you, these were&nbsp;again&nbsp;color codes specifically geared toward white women and their role within white patriarchy.

At the same time, pink&#39;s association with queerness began during the Holocaust, when Jewish concentration camp inmates who were suspected of being gay or trans were forced to wear bands with pink triangles. Post World War II, the pink triangle has been associated with the gay liberation movement, and since then the color has made its way into multiple queer (LGBT+) movements and banners.

<img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/cdn.mplsart.com/file_container/RmlsZUNvbnRhaW5lch4fMjE3MzcwMDAy/full.jpg" />

After that, pop culture drove the message the rest of the way home with cultural icons, books, movies, and musicals associating pink with womanhood, femininity, and ladylike fashion. Then Barbie came along, but I won&rsquo;t bring that back up.

Now, nature seems to love pink. There are pink birds, iguanas, and elephants, and most of the world&#39;s flowers are pink.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s a color used to attract pollinators and is derived from natural pigments called anthocyanins, which are also found in raspberries. But pink is generally one of the most widely hated and avoided colors (with blue being the most beloved, as 53% of the world&rsquo;s&nbsp;population claims&nbsp;the color as their favorite).&nbsp;But why? Well, I googled it and the answers were pretty much what I expected.

Pink is a color typically associated with everything supremacy has built entire civilizations on the hatred of. Sex, queerness, femininity in all forms, gentility, compassion, vulnerability, love, sweetness, and playfulness. And while I am well aware that different cultures view colors differently, I am&nbsp;speaking from a very American, very Westernized filter because that is the country and culture that has had the greatest impact on my life, and likely on the lives of those reading this. Pink is a color that contains the passion of red mixed with the purity of white. It is almost exclusively used to represent girlhood and childlike femininity to the extent of almost symbolizing immaturity and childishness. Which is probably why it&rsquo;s a color you don&rsquo;t see often representing countries, teams, and organizations; it is not taken seriously.

But feelings about the color are shifting, with the love of colors like Millennial Pink, which is really just regular old pastel pink that is keenly marketed to improve the moods of depressed young adults who are watching helplessly as the world spirals into chaos. And as we are finally having conversations about how binary thinking is an erasure of the true fluidity of gender expression, the color is slowly losing the ingrained bias associated with cisgender,&nbsp;heterosexual women. We are in the process of moving away from viewing pink as a silly and frivolous color, but there are still some conflicting messages.&nbsp;

<img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/cdn.mplsart.com/file_container/RmlsZUNvbnRhaW5lch4fMjQzMzcwMDAx/full.jpg" />Janelle Monae (center) in the music video for &quot;Pynk.&quot;

For instance, while Janelle Monae&rsquo;s song and music video &quot;Pynk&quot;&nbsp;championed the sexualities of queer women of color, with queer black women at the forefront, the pink pussy hat symbolized a narrow-minded version of feminism that was empowering to only white, cis-het,&nbsp;middle class women. And as we expand conversations in an attempt to gain visibility and inclusivity, we want to be active regarding the colors we use on the banners we wish to fly. 
 
But we&rsquo;ll discuss that more next time.

&nbsp;

This article is the second in a series. Check out the <a href="https://www.mplsart.com/written/2020/04/kaleidoscope-eyes-intro-to-color-theory">Intro to Color Theory</a> here.

Amina Harper is an artist, writer, and educator based in the Twin Cities. For more info and to see her work, visit<a href="https://aminaharper.wixsite.com/aminaharper/" target="_blank">&nbsp;her website</a>&nbsp;or follow&nbsp;her on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/amina.harper/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.

Banner image photo by Alexander Kovalev / Pexels.

From French royals to politicized pussy hats, Amina Harper unpacks pink, a color most hated but also most meaningful.

Kaleidoscope Eyes: The Color Pink

MPLSART

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I love color. I can&rsquo;t say that I love it more than the average person, but I can tell you that my &ldquo;superpower&rdquo; is to see the difference between two seemingly similar hues that have a single degree of temperature between them. I can mix you any pigment you want with a basic description, I can see a color and replicate it without second thought, I can arrange a color story and place colors in descending order from lightest to darkest, warmest to coolest, hottest red to iciest indigo. This is not a hidden talent or a humble brag, I&rsquo;m just telling you how it is: I&nbsp;have kaleidoscope eyes.&nbsp;

When asked about my artwork, the first question that comes up is how I select my color palette. And the truth is, I don&rsquo;t select a color palette&nbsp;but a range of emotions I want the image to evoke;&nbsp;I select the colors based off of that. Because there are as many colors as the world is old, this is quite the task to take on. But in order to make a decision regarding what colors to choose, one has to see a wide variety of colors applied diversely, so that the options are made known.&nbsp;

Basically, the more color you take in, the more you can produce (or reproduce) when making art.&nbsp;

I&rsquo;m always looking at color, not just in my everyday life, but I make it a point to seek out opportunities to absorb everything from jeweled and highly saturated tones, to milky and muted hues. There are monochrome color palettes (where a specific color and its variants are chosen), complimentary color palettes (where two opposing colors and their variants are the core of the palette), and even palettes where you throw all the colors at the canvas to create a beautifully balanced technicolor acid trip that makes you want to taste the fucking rainbow.&nbsp;

But before you can play around in any of that. You have to know what feelings you want this image to get across; because colors are about feelings.

It&rsquo;s important to note that colors don&rsquo;t just make things prettier; they affect our mind and bodies. They make us hungry, turn us on, jog our memories and can even be linked to trauma. If you can control the color palette of an image, you have an incredible amount of power over your audience&#39;s reaction to that image. Having a basic understanding of color as a symbol is a great way to start this exploration.

Here are some examples.
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RED 
Emotional/Psychological: Passion, Romance, Power, Caution, Anger 
Social/Cultural: Promiscuity (Lust), Violence, Love, Alarm 
Symbols: Fire, Blood, Red Apple, Red Roses, Stop Signs&nbsp;&amp; Stop Lights
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ORANGE 
Emotional/Psychological: Warmth, Freshness, Youthfulness 
Social/Cultural: Fun and Amusement, Vibrancy 
Symbols: Sunsets, Fruit, Fire, Fall (Autumn)
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YELLOW&nbsp; 
Emotional/Psychological: Joy and Happiness, Warmth, Cowardice&nbsp;&nbsp; 
Social/Cultural: Optimism&nbsp; 
Symbols: Sun and Sunshine, Stars, Light, Summertime&nbsp;
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GREEN&nbsp; 
Emotional/Psychological: Envy, Health (Both good and bad health), Safety and Permission 
Social/Cultural: Youthful Inexperience&nbsp; 
Symbols: Nature, Springtime, Hope, Life, Money&nbsp;
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BLUE&nbsp; 
Emotional/Psychological: Sadness (Emotions in General), Tranquility, Calm, Healing 
Social/Cultural: Intelligence, Wisdom, Sadness, Loyalty, Peace&nbsp; 
Symbols: Water, Sky, Winter, Uniforms&nbsp;
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VIOLET&nbsp; 
Emotional/Psychological: Mystery, Spirituality, Cosmic Energy, Magic&nbsp; 
Social/Cultural: Royalty, Wealth, Luxury, Vanity&nbsp; 
Symbols: Outer Space, Flowers&nbsp;
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PINK&nbsp; 
Emotional/Psychological: Love, Romance, Sexuality, Softness, Sweetness, Cuteness, Playfulness, Tenderness, Compassion, Femininity, Delicacy&nbsp; 
Social/Cultural: Girls, Young Women, Queerness, Gender Identities that are not considered Masculine&nbsp; 
Symbols: Girls, Hearts, Flowers, Sweet Foods
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These are framing devices that give context to how color is often used in the world around us. This kind of symbolism makes its way into just about every form of cultural content, from the gold and yellow of wealth and death in The Great Gatsby, to the character color coding in 2018&#39;s Black Panther (more on that soon).

Now, you may notice I didn&rsquo;t mention the colors black and white in this list. And that&rsquo;s because black and white are associated with binary thought, which is a violent hierarchy in which one of two terms or ideas dominates and oppresses the other in an attempt to destroy the natural fluidity of human identity. This is where the stakes heighten drastically. In western language especially, we tend to define one object via its proximity to and cultural privilege over another. This is a problem because&nbsp;black and white specifically&nbsp;are terms often associated with people, and as we all know that when you privilege one kind of person over another, the consequences are catastrophic.

I will get into the binary and exclusionary language surrounding color and its usage in later installments of this series as it is important to examine these toxic views in order to shed them. Subjects like race, gender, and sexuality will feature prominently and I want you to keep these ideas in mind for later.&nbsp;Once you know what the rules are, you can break them entirely in favor of a new narrative that allows for more nuance and interrogation of larger, more impactful social structures. Hopefully, the tools I present in this series can heal some of the colonial conditioning we&rsquo;re accustomed to; art is meant to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed, after all.

For now, this is an introduction to something that will grow larger as we continue. It is the opening of the color rabbit hole that we&rsquo;re all going down together. But as a reflection of this I want you, dear Reader, to symbol hunt for colors in the creative content you take in. What are the colors around you telling you about the world you live in? What do the colors you gravitate toward say about you?

Until then.

&nbsp;

Amina Harper is an artist, writer, and educator based in the Twin Cities. For more info and to see her work, visit<a href="https://aminaharper.wixsite.com/aminaharper/" target="_blank"> her website</a> or follow&nbsp;her on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/amina.harper/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.

Banner image: Adrien Olichon / Pexels
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The first in a series of articles diving deep into color, thinking critically about their meanings, their emotions, and, in some cases, their cruelties

Written by Amina HarperWebsite

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