Opinion: Impossible to be colorblind

By Larry Weitzman

All the colors are taken 1903 was a remarkable year. Not only did the first powered flight by a human take place by the Wright Brothers, but our country was introduced to the Crayola. Crayola became one of those marketing miracle words like Kleenex, Thermos, and Frigidaire in which a brand name was used to describe a product. In elementary school it was the lucky student who had the Crayola box with 64 crayon colors. I was lucky to have eight or 16.

Even Crayola has suffered from political correctness in naming its colors like Prussian Blue in 1958 became Midnight Blue, Flesh was renamed Peach in 1962, in 1999 Indian Red became Chestnut, although that color got its name from a reddish brown pigment found in India. Even Chartreuse became Laser Lemon in 1990.

Larry Weitzman

While Crayola has 120 colors in its palette, like Electric Lime, Fuzzy Wuzzy, or Outer Space with all colors being defined by their approximate Red Green Blue components, only two of their colors (pigments) are pure, Black and White with Black having a component base of 0,0,0 RGB and White listed as 255, 255, 255 component parts of RGB.

Perhaps it should be explained that all colors are made from some combination of the primary colors Red, Green, Blue. White is equal parts of RGB and Black is no light whatsoever (hence 0,0,0). What is sometimes taken for granted is how much we use color to describing things, especially humans or in politics, so much so that there are practically no basic colors left including a combination such as the use of the term Rainbow (Coalition).

If you are of the left side of political persuasion, you are Red or a Pinko. If you are from Africa, you are Black although there are Blacks who are not from Africa but still identifying as an African American. Sometimes Hispanics from Latin America are referred to as Browns (Brown Power). During World War II the term Yellow was used to describe a component of the Axis power.

If you are an environmentalist, you are Green. If you are a Republican or from a Republican state you could be thought of as from a Red state as they were described by mainstream media in the 2000 presidential election, a description that has stuck until this day.

It is most interesting that the late Tim Russert, who is credited for the current red/blue state designation, did not call the Red states as Democrat leaning states and the Blue states as Republican leaning states. (Republicans are kind of thought as cold and heartless by their adversaries.) That designation would certainly have been more fitting and descriptive, but maybe not politically correct. Who wants to be labeled a Red, especially if you are one.

In 1908, a newspaper published a map with the red state/blue designation in the same manner as Russert. In 1976, the designation was reversed (red-Democrat; blue-Republican) and held that way until 2000.

So with the regard to the eight or so basic colors, White, Black, Red, Blue, Green, Gray (senior citizens), Yellow, Brown, Purple (a color used as to support men’s gay rights and Black women) and Pink (also used to identify women’s issues like breast cancer) there appears to be only one color yet unclaimed politically and that is Orange. While Orange is the name for one of nature’s great foods (lots of vitamin C and fiber), no one has used it politically. Perhaps it should be identified with men’s issues like prostate cancer. It is currently one of the colors for the Denver Broncos, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Miami Dolphins (there goes the alliteration) and it is the color for Syracuse University (Syracuse mascot is Otto the Orange and they are called the Orangemen).

After Orange, political groups will have to dig deep. Maybe the next political color will be Mango Tango, Bittersweet, Cornflower, Inchworm or Neon Carrot.

Larry Weitzman is a resident of Rescue.