Thinking in Color

Intangible as the normal scope of daily living, color bursts into our lives in a continual stream. Color surrounds us and is used to describe events, places, emotions, and objects. Many comparisons are made using color. People are often heard to say something like, "Her hair is as red as fire." The central theme of many of our common expressions is color. "You're looking blue today!" or "She's absolutely green with envy!" are commonplace expressions that center on color. Their power is derived from the colors represented within them.

Colors form so many of our stereotypes, some of them hilariously funny, others allow us identity, others are helpful aids, and others are far from amusing.

One of the humorous ones: A friend of mine is continuously told that since she's a redhead, she must have a volatile temper. When my friend snaps out a comeback, people cluck their tongues and say that it's that redhead temper boiling to the surface. But when people around her are provoked, and snap an insult or a comeback, it's laughed off as the insulted person receiving their due.

As a sense of identity: When my school football team steps on to the field in their green and gold, we, as fellow students, are given a sense of identity and comradeship. They are our players. We are cheering for our friends and fellow students. Besides group identity, color is used for individual identity: My friend wears a black shirt, black pants, and a black and red headscarf. He has made these clothes his trademark. You can spot him by the headscarf, from quite a distance.

Color as an aid: Color therapy is one way of using color as an aid in our society. I suppose the most succinct explanation of color therapy is the use of certain colors to deliberately provoke psychological responses. Let me give you an example: I have already told you about the friend of mine who constantly wears black. Besides thinking it makes him look forbidding, there is a deeper psychological reason why he wears black. Whether we consciously understand it or not, the color black gives us a feeling of power, strength, and self-confidence. On the other hand, a person who is depressed might paint their room green in order to have a soothing atmosphere. And fast food restaurants often use bright, cheery colors such as red, orange, and yellow in their décor to stimulate your appetite.

There are other ways in which color serves to aid us. One of the most important is through associative thinking. When a person begins driving lessons, they learn to associate certain lights and traffic signs with things they must do. For instance, when a person sees a red light, it becomes their automatic instinct to stop. Just as red is universal for stop, green is universal for go, and yellow for caution.

Far from amusing stereotypes relating to our color association: From ancient times, people have been enslaved because of the color of their skin. In Ancient India, a group of individuals called the Aryans overran and conquered the native country of the Harapans. The Aryans enslaved the Harapans because they were of a darker skin color than the Aryans, and forced them to the Aryans will. This stereotype, people with darker or different skin color being enslaved or persecuted, persisted into the 1800’s in the United States and still creates a threat to mankind’s unity in many areas of the world.

I spend every day surrounded by color, yet I’ve never known it. I have no association with it. I am not threatened or prejudiced by it.

I give you the following for your own growth and thought. Do you think in color? When someone tells you a story or something that just happened in their lives, do you see it in color? Do you dream in color? Color is such a beautiful way to explain things that might not be easily explained without it. How would you explain something to someone that had never known color, and didn't even know shades of gray, they only knew the color black?