The remnants of old world racism still plague our society. Some aspects have been largely removed yet it lingers still in a more subtle form. I’m a 43 year old “white” man who has lived my entire life in Florida.
A while back I watched a segment of an interview of Morgan Freeman by Mike Wallace. Mike, being the great interviewer he was straight up asked Morgan how he would cure racism. Morgan replied “Stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you white. And I’m going to ask you to stop calling me black.” I found this very thought provoking. It made me think about how the use of color labels have impacted how we think of ourselves and other people.
Think about the colors black and white. They are polar opposites. One is the combination of all light, The other is the absence of all light. The repetitive use of these inaccurate labels has permeated into our psyche. It has led to thinking of ourselves as belonging to a color group and which inevitably leads to an us vs them mentality.
I think we should stop referring to ourselves by color. I’m not suggesting we completely ignore skin tone difference (that would be absurd) yet at the same time we shouldn’t inaccurately label ourselves because it only leads to inaccurate perceptions of each other.
In my own person life I have done my best to stop referring to those of African descent as “black” and have tried to stop referring to myself as “white”. I can honestly say it has been a positive experience for me. If it ever comes up in conversation I just say I’m light skinned and some have darker skin than I do – but we’re all the same. I think we all should do this. You’ll notice a difference.
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I understand what you’re saying, and why one would take this beautiful view. And though there may be lively responses as to why I’m wrong on this 
, I think about the positives of racial, etc. identity, such as one’s culture, comfort, and community. Like for me, I’m Swedish and Ojibwe (just like I’m a woman, mother, daughter, sister, student, etc.). Perhaps it’s because America tried to strip my ancestors of their culture in innumerable ways, preserving and honoring it remains so important. Everything my ancestors have gone through, on both sides, has made me who I am (for better or worse 
), and I do feel that molds me and creates my identity. With that, I’m not saying this is right for everyone. It seems a lot of people are turning away from labeling and identifying as certain things and a lot can be said for that. However, I feel like I’m a wild mixture of the labels that matter to me in their varying degrees that make me, well, me. Does that make any sense? Did I totally mess up something really cool that you were addressing? (Sorry if I did.) 
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I hear what you’re saying and appreciate your feeling here. I would say culture is an ever changing thing. I completely agree, we have used those color lables as cultural rallying points. But when a black man marries a white woman, the two cultures merge. Then everything changes. The culture of the parents isn’t exactly the culture of the child they produce. That child is a mixure of cultures. And as we know, a mixture of cultures isn’t 100% loyal to one side or the other but has to balance both of them. This is also true on a large scale. Cultures merge, and with the invention of the internet, they are merging more and more every day. And we’re constantly trying to balance those differences. As that happens, those differences are slowly but surely fading away in every way - from physical appearances to cultural tastes.
I don’t think we should actively make an effort to preserve culture. Our goal should be to preserve truth. We should only be loyal to truth and have the courage to face whatever change that brings.
Color labels, such as Black and White, puts a barrier of separation between me and those of darker skin. I think we should remove all barriers of separation. How can we call ourselves equal yet label ourselves opposite colors?
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I get that, and I agree that it is probably unfortunate that society created the distinction between Black and White as it does much to create an us vs. them mindset. You give me a lot to consider. I’m so curious to hear what others think about this topic!
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Try it out. Go a week without thinking of or verbally referring to someone as black or white. You’ll see what I mean.
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That makes me think of how I do find it weird when someone uses someone’s color when referring to them. I can understand doing that if you’re literally trying to describe how someone looks, but it does bother me when it’s said but it’s unnecessary to do so. You know what I mean? One of my brothers was saying how someone did a horrible parking job, but, of course, had to say it was a Somali woman. I asked him how he knew she was from Somalia and why her ethnicity or gender mattered. He actually understood what I was saying. (Not holding my breath to see how long that lasts.) Yeah, I don’t like that shit at all.
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I completely know what you mean. As our society has made progress on equality, we are slowly throwing off old world ideas. Color labeling is one of those ideas which needs to disappear. It’s a label used by Europeans to label Africans which was very racist. Unfortunately it’s become second nature and accepted by everyone but it only serves as a separator. And to quote the famous ruling in Brown v. Board “Separate is not equal.”
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