Colour My World
At first glance, the primary thought process in this post might seem very amateurish. Very kindergarden kid-ish. Downright duh, in fact. But bear with me, okay? (Bleah, it's my blog, so you read it if you're interested, or you move on.)
Colour. Isn't it a wonderful thing? Have you ever once stopped in mid-day, just to observe the myriad of colours we have in our world? Like how the SBS buses spew out black smoke which is just a hue different from the asphalt road? Like how the pinkish clouds at night turn a menacing orangy when it threatens to rain? Can you imagine a world without colour? Would be pretty sad, huh?
Scientifically, (boring lecture coming up) light from the sun can be broken into 7 colours. White light is then reflected off any coloured surface, which absorbs all the colours and only reflects its own colour. While you only see 7 main colours in a rainbow or prism, you're looking at a difference in wavelengths ranging hundreds of thousands of nanometres. Pluck a wavelength band, and you get a colour. Pluck another band just off by a few nanometres, and the hue is already different. Fascinating.
Colour is a large aspect in peoples' lives. You choose a model of car and its colour. You pair outfits by their colour. Red marks in your report card are bad. Red flags, white flags, yellow card, green light. Colour is such a large part of our lives and is actually one of the easiest ways to categorise things.
People love to categorise. It's one of the things that our higher intellect allows for. With the study of science, humans can collect data about the world around us through observation and postulation. With languages, humans can write about the data, the phenomena and pass it on to others. Generation after generation, new facts are written, old ones are updated and obsolete ones are noted for reference. So how do we deal with all this information? We take it down and categorise them. The human mind works through connections. Found out something new? Categorise it such that it links with something you already know. Want to recall that something new you just learnt? Link through what you know to that particular fact.
Since colour is such a large part of our lives, it becomes one of the major categories to link items to. Colours provide humans one of the most rapid paths through the thinking process too. Take the traffic lights for instance. What if we had used words instead of colours for traffic signals? Our brain would require more time to process the word, what it means and what the respective action should be. However, colours do not have to go through the word processing section of the brain which is probably one of the most time consuming steps in the process.
Since colour is so much a part of categorisation and human life, it is only natural that skin colour becomes another way to categorise humans. Based on skin colour, a person can do an immediate assessment of the other party's racial/ethnic background. Of course, this initial assessment might prove to be wrong, but it is a helpful first gauge. In my opinion, this categorisation by skin colour is not wrong, biologically, morally or ethically.
How it becomes wrong is when people attach connotations or "meanings" to this colour categorisation. And this is the root of discrimination. (Random thought: Notice how discriminate shares "-crim-" with incriminate and criminal.) The belief that just because one's skin is this colour makes him more intelligent, or more morally upright. Or that this colour means that you're lazy. Or calculative, or just God-forsaken (and thus have to be treated as underlings). It's snobbish. It's stupid. It's downright childish. And yet so amazingly fascinating.
How many lives have been lost due to this kind of thought process? How many people have had to endure suffering? How many more are still suffering? Is there a way that this could end? As always, I don't have a real answer. It is not within my bounds as a normal human to have all the answers. But just for you dear readers, think about it. I trust you guys are mature enough to figure out the root of this problem. I trust you guys are sensible enough to do what is right, based on what is within you. Because under everything, I believe that all humans are good. (And smart. And can appreciate colour.) -Jimmy
Colour. Isn't it a wonderful thing? Have you ever once stopped in mid-day, just to observe the myriad of colours we have in our world? Like how the SBS buses spew out black smoke which is just a hue different from the asphalt road? Like how the pinkish clouds at night turn a menacing orangy when it threatens to rain? Can you imagine a world without colour? Would be pretty sad, huh?
Scientifically, (boring lecture coming up) light from the sun can be broken into 7 colours. White light is then reflected off any coloured surface, which absorbs all the colours and only reflects its own colour. While you only see 7 main colours in a rainbow or prism, you're looking at a difference in wavelengths ranging hundreds of thousands of nanometres. Pluck a wavelength band, and you get a colour. Pluck another band just off by a few nanometres, and the hue is already different. Fascinating.
Colour is a large aspect in peoples' lives. You choose a model of car and its colour. You pair outfits by their colour. Red marks in your report card are bad. Red flags, white flags, yellow card, green light. Colour is such a large part of our lives and is actually one of the easiest ways to categorise things.
People love to categorise. It's one of the things that our higher intellect allows for. With the study of science, humans can collect data about the world around us through observation and postulation. With languages, humans can write about the data, the phenomena and pass it on to others. Generation after generation, new facts are written, old ones are updated and obsolete ones are noted for reference. So how do we deal with all this information? We take it down and categorise them. The human mind works through connections. Found out something new? Categorise it such that it links with something you already know. Want to recall that something new you just learnt? Link through what you know to that particular fact.
Since colour is such a large part of our lives, it becomes one of the major categories to link items to. Colours provide humans one of the most rapid paths through the thinking process too. Take the traffic lights for instance. What if we had used words instead of colours for traffic signals? Our brain would require more time to process the word, what it means and what the respective action should be. However, colours do not have to go through the word processing section of the brain which is probably one of the most time consuming steps in the process.
Since colour is so much a part of categorisation and human life, it is only natural that skin colour becomes another way to categorise humans. Based on skin colour, a person can do an immediate assessment of the other party's racial/ethnic background. Of course, this initial assessment might prove to be wrong, but it is a helpful first gauge. In my opinion, this categorisation by skin colour is not wrong, biologically, morally or ethically.
How it becomes wrong is when people attach connotations or "meanings" to this colour categorisation. And this is the root of discrimination. (Random thought: Notice how discriminate shares "-crim-" with incriminate and criminal.) The belief that just because one's skin is this colour makes him more intelligent, or more morally upright. Or that this colour means that you're lazy. Or calculative, or just God-forsaken (and thus have to be treated as underlings). It's snobbish. It's stupid. It's downright childish. And yet so amazingly fascinating.
How many lives have been lost due to this kind of thought process? How many people have had to endure suffering? How many more are still suffering? Is there a way that this could end? As always, I don't have a real answer. It is not within my bounds as a normal human to have all the answers. But just for you dear readers, think about it. I trust you guys are mature enough to figure out the root of this problem. I trust you guys are sensible enough to do what is right, based on what is within you. Because under everything, I believe that all humans are good. (And smart. And can appreciate colour.) -Jimmy
posted by Jimmy at 10:41 AM
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