Color and Race

by John Hope Franklin (Contributor)

In itself color is meaningless. Unlike religion or nationality, unlike systems of belief or kinship associations, color does not suggest any pattern of meaning; it has no moral significance. Yet meaning is attributed to it, and it has enormous moral consequences. "Military conquest and alien rule, cultural derogation and individual affront, political suppression, military repression, and almost every other kind of coercion," as one contributor to this volume writes, "form an important part of the history of the colored peoples resident in the once-colonial countries or descended from them, and they are bitterly remembered. Color is the shorthand that evokes all these griefs and grievances." The predicament of the black man in America, while providing the most recent and dramatic example of the problem of color and race, does not nearly approach a definition of the problem. In this collection, writers of various backgrounds and training consider the changing and unchanging attitudes toward racial differences, and the forces--widely distributed in time and space--which have contributed to the global situation. They consider such matters as concepts of beauty, religious symbolism, power and privilege, international relations, the threat of new polarizations, and the complications within particular societies (e.g., the caste system in India, immigration in Great Britain, industrial emulation of the West in Japan).

391 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

John Hope Franklin, Ph.D. (History, Harvard University, 1941; M.A., History, Harvard U., 1936; B.A., Fisk University, 1935), was the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University. He also had served as President of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association.

Reviews

[Isaiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a damning and delightful candor in these chapters that offers insights I fear would be difficult to capture in contemporary scholarship. In a comparative analysis of race and color across societies, such openness feels increasingly rare. As a nation, though I fear speaking so arrogantly for the global community, we have witnessed events that have made it in some ways taboo to speak openly about certain realities, including bias and attitude. You may think people vocalize their attitudes with bluntness, but I assure you it doesn't match the level of frankness in some of the sentiments collected in this volume. Perhaps as a result of our collective awareness of historical injustices and the advancement of racial consciousness and racial pride, many people of color today speak with greater caution and deliberation. Yet this vigilance, while understandable, can sometimes inhibit genuine insight and prevent difficult truths from being fully articulated. It felt cathartic to read certain excerpts at times.

Published in 1968, this work is undeniably emblematic of its era, and that very aspect deepens my appreciation for it. That said, are there chapters, arguments, or perspectives I disagree with, if not find plainly mistaken? Of course, lol. I’m looking at you, Leon Carl Brown, with your chapter “Color in Northern Africa,” as well as Julian Pitt-Rivers. But this is to be expected. Fifty-seven years have passed since the book’s publication. Some of its observations remain astonishingly sharp and prescient, so accurate to the point they leave me speechless. Others, inevitably, miss the mark. And some observations have even come true. I'm sure E. R. Braithwaite (R.I.P.) would be delighted to learn that there are "colored" Britons who simply identify as Britons. Either way, such imperfections are par for the course in sociological analysis; for me to dwell on them feels misguided.

What remains truly invaluable is the depth of insight and the ambitious scope of analysis captured. I found the following chapters to be most intriguing:
- The Significance of Skin Color in Human Relations by Kenneth J. Gergen
- The Social Perceptions of Skin Color in Japan by Hiroshi Wagatsuma
- Race and Color in the West Indies by David Lowenthal
- The Problem of Polarization on the Axis of Color by Talcott Parsons