THE CRAYOLA CURE FOR RACE

Race Relations Have Always Been A Big Problem For Human Beings And The Solution Has Been Right Under Our Noses For Years.

Recently, everyone has been talking about a “post racial America.” Funny how every time black folks make any gains, people talk about how race shouldn’t matter. Anyway, a  post racial America is easier said than done but I believe the answer is not in some profound place but in a very simple one:

Harry Potter.

I thought about how the books are sent all over the world to fresh young minds to absorb and how many of those minds are influenced by it. There is one word in those books that recurs often:

Dark.

In Potter, we are told of dark wizards, dark magic, dark, marks, dark lord, dark arts and the like. It occurred to me that darkness has always been associated with the negative; or with something generally bad. Black Monday, black cats, and my all time favorite, the Black Death, because regular death is for punks. And remember when you first saw Darth Vader, evil and menacing in that black mask and uniform? I didn’t know shit about this brother, but I knew he was up to no good.

Now we all know that there are light things that are bad and scary, like lightening, ghosts and Wall Street Bankers. And dark things that are wonderful like chocolate, mahogany and Iman.

Image and imagery are two different things. The image of something is the thing itself, what the conscious mind processes as information. The imagery of it is the visual symbolism of what it has come to mean to you consciously and subconsciously. For example, if I see a black cat, my conscious mind sees a cat that is dark in color but my subconscious sees evil, fear and mysteriousness. It remembers that black cats are bad luck, witches pets and the harbingers of death.

Think about what it does to a mind to be constantly bombarded with the image of dark as bad and light as good. Would that mind grow to fear the dark? Would it grow to worship the light? Would a dark person feel ashamed of his color? Would a light person be arrogant with self-appreciation? Now think of the reaction of one human being to another wrapped in the imagery of those contrasts.

Yeah, big trouble.

So what to do? Well, the solution is in the basic Crayola Eight Pack. (I could never afford that 64 Pack with the sharpener on the back. If you had one, I still hate you) We just need to switch the imagery of color! Not a reversal of light and dark because that would only lead to Light Wizards and White Vaders. No, we need to obliterate this dependency on the two extremes. The limitation of two iconic choices is unnatural and has brought us down, just look at Congress.

For example, the Crayola Cure could make pink the color for anything bad in business. “Stocks plummeted on Pink Monday,” or “The recession has cast a pink cloud on the world markets.” Of course, that singer named Pink would have to change her name, but I don’t like her shit anyway.

Orange could be a positive color for all things personal. “The Orange Knight rescued the fair maiden,” or “Luke Skywalker fought with the power of the orangeness of his hero’s heart.”

Green could be a bad color. “The green malevolence radiated from the thing,” or “He contemplated their death with the greenest of intentions.”

Taken to its logical conclusion, changing the image of all colors could solve the race problem by tackling it at its subconscious roots. And that would change things for us all.

Check it out:

Darth Vader swept into the room, his green mask a visage of evil and this long green cape flapping behind him like the wings of a great bird.

Harry Potter took a step back at the sight of him, but he still shimmered with the orange light of his courage.

Vader raised his putrid pink gloved hands to strike and just as quickly Harry whipped out his wand and issued forth a brilliant purple light that struck the green clad Vader like cerulean death, plunging him into the depths of ominous yellow oblivion!

See? Thrilling, descriptive and it doesn’t paint any person or race as inferior.

So, I say we can do it! Let us all embrace the Crayola Cure and begin to change things now.

That’s it and everyone have an orange day.

©Copyright 2010