Category: Courage

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Adaptability Attitude Courage Equality Expectations Freedom Knowledge Leadership Possibility Values Wisdom

Colour, Light, Science, Art, Culture, and Language

To this point in human existence, many People have a limited understanding of Colour.

This includes understanding what Colour is and what Colour is not.

How many Colours are you able to see in each of these three diagrams?

I) In PHYSICS
Cyan-Yellow-Magenta (CYM) Colour Diagram
 II) In PHYSICS
Red-Green-Blue (RGB) Colour Diagram
 III) In ART
Red-Yellow-Blue (RYB) Colour Diagram

In light of this experience, each of these other topics is important, as well:

Colour is a function of the human visual system.
Colour is not an intrinsic property.

Objects do not have a colour.
Objects give off visible light which appears to be a distinctive colour.

Within the spectrum of visible light Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Purple (or Violet), Magenta, and Cyan all represent a distinctive colour.

Black, White, and Brown, also, each represent a distinctive colour.

Black is the absence of all visible light.
White is the presence of all visible light.
Brown is a combination of Red, Blue, and Yellow.

Colour is simply a perceived quality of visible light.

Culture is a function of the human social system.
Culture is not an intrinsic property.

Culture is not an object.
Culture does not give off visible light which appears to be a distinctive colour.

Culture is not Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Purple (or Violet), Magenta, Cyan, Black, White, or Brown.

Culture encompasses social behavior and norms found in human societies, as well as the Language, knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities and habits of People in these groups.

Language is a social construct.
Language is not an intrinsic property.

Language is not an object.
Language does not give off visible light which appears to be a distinctive colour.

Language is not Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Purple (or Violet), Magenta, Cyan, Black, White, or Brown.

Language is what People use to communicate.

People are a distinctive combination of individuals with a shared Culture.

People are not objects.
People do not give off visible light which appears to be a distinctive colour.

People are not Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Purple (or Violet), Magenta, or Cyan.

People are not Black.
Black is not a Culture.
Black is not a Language.
Black is simply a distinctive colour.

People are not White.
White is not a Culture.
White is not a Language.
White is simply a distinctive colour.

People are not Brown.
Brown is not a Culture.
Brown is not a Language.
Brown is simply a distinctive colour.

People are not simple. People are complex.

People create culture with their language choices.

Nothing more; and, nothing less.

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Adaptability Attitude Courage Equality Expectations Knowledge Leadership

Language choice is important, when using ‘artificially’ created racial labels

If you are going to use words like “black” and “white”, as racial terms, then, it should be the case that both words are capitalized, not just one or the other.

1) According to the Center for the Study of Social Policy …

Recognizing Race in Language: Why We Capitalize “Black” and “White”

(excerpt 1)
In addition to capitalizing Black, CSSP has also made the decision to capitalize White. We will do this when referring to people who are racialized as White in the United States, including those who identify with ethnicities and nationalities that can be traced back to Europe. To not name “White” as a race is, in fact, an anti-Black act which frames Whiteness as both neutral and the standard.

(excerpt 2)
For these reasons, we require the capitalization of “Black” and “White” when referring to racial identity in our work. Establishing a rule, instead of leaving capitalization to the writer as a choice, emphasizes the critical importance and political permanence of these words as real, existing racial identities. And instead of hoping for other White institutions to apply equitable treatment of capitalizing both “Black” and “White,” we’ve taken the step to establish our own style guide, and hope others will follow

– Ann Thúy Nguyễn and Maya Pendleton ()

2) According to Kwame Anthony Appiah (Professor of philosophy and law at New York University) …

The Case for Capitalizing the B in Black:
Black and white are both historically created racial identities—and whatever rule applies to one should apply to the other.

(excerpt 3)
The style guide of the American Psychological Association declares, as it has for a generation: “Racial and ethnic groups are designated by proper nouns and are capitalized. Therefore, use ‘Black’ and ‘White’ instead of ‘black’ and ‘white.’”

(excerpt 4)
The point of the capital letter, then, isn’t to elevate; it’s to situate. “White Americans deserve their capital letter too,” Tharps says magnanimously, “but I’m not here to fight their battles.” Perhaps a stronger argument would be that white people don’t deserve a lowercase w and shouldn’t be allowed to claim it. One reason that the MIT philosopher Sally Haslanger prefers to capitalize the names of races is, she explains, “to highlight the artificiality of race,” by contrast to the seeming naturalness of color. A larger argument lurks here: Racial identities were not discovered but created, she’s reminding us, and we must all take responsibility for them. Don’t let them disguise themselves as common nouns and adjectives. Call them out by their names.

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Courage Equality Faith Freedom Leadership Non-violence Wisdom

Long (unwavering) Moral Arc of History Bends Toward Justice

The Way of John Lewis

(excerpt 1)
“I truly believe that, in keeping with the teachings of Gandhi, of Martin Luther King, of Jesus, that we cannot give up on the way of non-violence, the way of peace, the way of love. If we are going to create the beloved community, if we are going to redeem the country, redeem the world, we have to do it by respecting the rights of all human beings.”

(excerpt 2)
“To the rioters here in Atlanta and across the country: I see you, and I hear you. I know your pain, your rage, your sense of despair and hopelessness. Justice has, indeed, been denied for far too long. Rioting, looting, and burning is not the way. Organize. Demonstrate. Sit-in. Stand-up. Vote. Be constructive, not destructive. History has proven time and again that non-violent, peaceful protest is the way to achieve the justice and equality that we all deserve.”

by Cynthia Tucker

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Adaptability Courage Knowledge Wisdom

Why WE are ALL African

“You old African, I’ve found You!”

– Alex Haley (James Earl Jones/Roots: The Next Generations, 1979)

There’s No Scientific Basis For Race – It’s a Made Up Label

(excerpt 1)
Over the past few decades, genetic research has revealed two deep truths about people. The first is that all humans are closely related—more closely related than all chimps, even though there are many more humans around today. Everyone has the same collection of genes, but with the exception of identical twins, everyone has slightly different versions of some of them. Studies of this genetic diversity have allowed scientists to reconstruct a kind of family tree of human populations. That has revealed the second deep truth: In a very real sense, all people alive today are Africans.

(excerpt 2)
“What the genetics shows is that mixture and displacement have happened again and again and that our pictures of past ‘racial structures’ are almost always wrong,” says David Reich, a Harvard University paleogeneticist whose new book on the subject is called Who We Are and How We Got Here. There are no fixed traits associated with specific geographic locations, Reich says, because as often as isolation has created differences among populations, migration and mixing have blurred or erased them.

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Adaptability Courage Equality Freedom Knowledge Leadership Values Wisdom

General Order Number 3

“The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.”

– Juneteenth (June 19, 1865)

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Adaptability Attitude Courage Expectations Leadership Possibility Values Wisdom

If we look, thoughtfully …

… life’s miracles (both, little and big) abound.

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Attitude Courage Equality Expectations Freedom Leadership Possibility Values Wisdom

Yes We Can

– Barack Obama (2008)

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Attitude Courage Faith Possibility

For The Ones Who Dream

– Mia Dolan (Emma Stone/La La Land)

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Attitude Courage Knowledge Leadership Wisdom

What I AM

– Dr. Maya Angelou (2013)

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Courage Leadership Values Wisdom

Let The Trumpet Sound …

(excerpt from) Letter from Birmingham Jail

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.

– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (August 1963)