Colour Matters?

Book excerpt: We are all different in some ways, yet, very similar because we all respond to emotions of love, affection, joy and sorrow. These feelings are common to all-across ethnicities, geographies and boundaries. Yet there are certain factors which contribute to our identity, which visibly make us look dissimilar, and impacts how we connect and belong. The colour of the skin, through its subtle and attached symbolism and beliefs, its presence or the lack of it, tells a story of human dynamics that is constructive and/or destructive, depending on the lens used. It has the visual power to influence, pronounce judgements, divide, confer privileges and even influence the right to love, hate, embrace, protect or kill merely based on colour-the colour of the skin. Colour Matters? explores these cross-cultural dynamics and highlights the difficulties of being a minority in different geographies. The book is replete with stories of individuals across continents and multi-ethnic, multi-professional backgrounds narrating their personal experiences and, hence, learnings from their own encounters. In a world where the race and racism debate continues to occupy a crucial space in public discourse it is worthwhile to embark on an exploratory journey to deconstruct such ideas and discover what really lies beneath.