People of Color

Hello My Dear Friends,

I was at an ass’n meeting the other day and someone made a statement that about 10% of their membership consists of people of color. At the time, didn’t think much of it. But then over the weekend, in a Washington Post article by Michele Singletary, again reference was made to “people of color”. This got me wondering. Hmmmm….who exactly are these people of color that we are referring to. So decided to spend time over the weekend doing some research and looked into several factors.

Incase anyone else also is wondering about this as I am, let’s me share with you what I found. It was quite enlightening.

First, I looked up definition of White, Black and Brown on dictionary.com. Here’s how black, white and brown are defined, the common “colors” of people I ran across in my daily life, on this planet earth:

Black: The color at one extreme end of the scale of grays – opposite to white, absorbing all light incident upon it.

White: A color without hue at one extreme end of the scale of grays, opposite to black.

(Man, this was like reading the Federal Register where one statement takes you to anther and before you know it, you’re going in circles. In any event, not to deviate from topic at hand…)

Brown: A dark tertiary color with a yellowish or reddish hue.

OK, I was stumped because they all use the word color in their definitions. So further I had to dig.

Then I looked up some medical sort of stuff and here’s what they had to say:

In humans, the degree of darkness of skin depends primarily on how much Melanin is present. In add’n, the presence of Hemoglobin and Carotine in the blood also contributes to skin color.

Still, no clarity.

So finally, I went to the big boss, at home. Yes, my wife. Yes, she is in charge, without a doubt, whether I accept it or not. Even my two daughters remind me of this every time they get a chance. But that’s a different conversation. In any event, she is a medical doctor so I figured she’ll know something about this.

She explained to me that with the exception of Albinos (which is a rare situation and very few true Albinos are present on this earth), every living human being on this planet earth has Melanin (and Hemoglobin and Carotine) and it is these elements that contribute to color.

Hmmmm….still no clear answer. OK, so I give up. From all the research I have done, the way I see it, are we all not people of color? So when references are made to people of color, who exactly are we referring, besides our selves? The only folks who are technically not of color are Abinos. And I can’t seem to recall the last time I saw an Albino. Now, I am really confused. Can someone please shed some light on this for me.

Perhaps we need to have another measure — please indicate your Melanin content level and we can be grouped by this measure.

Check here: A. 0-10%
B. 11-20%
and so on….

Happy Valentines every body. This reminds me, I also learned that every human being also has a human heart. Hmmmm….I just can’t seem to find anything that really separates us. Everywhere I look, I only seem to find similarities. The search goes on…

Vinay

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Vinay Kumar

GRC Direct – Serving Associations and Non-Profits
One-Stop Shop for Graphic Design, Printing & Mailing

www.grcdirect.com
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E Vinay@grcdirect.com

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