People of Color

Physically, objects can be said to have the color of the light leaving their surfaces, which normally depends on the spectrum of that light and of the incident illumination, as well as potentially on the angles of illumination and viewing orientation.

Some objects not only REFLECT light, they can transmit light or emit light themselves, which contribute to the color also. We are interested only in reflected light for this discussion, not with objects that by themselves transmit or emit light. Some generalizations of the physics can be drawn regarding REFLECTED light, neglecting perceptual effects:

a. Light arriving at an opaque surface is either reflected "specularly" (that is, in the manner of a mirror), scattered (that is, reflected with diffuse scattering), or absorbed – or some combination of these.

b. Opaque objects that do not reflect specularly (which tend to have rough surfaces) have their color determined by which wavelengths of light they scatter (reflect) more and which they scatter (reflect) less (with the light that is not scattered being absorbed). If objects scatter all wavelengths, they appear white. If they absorb all wavelengths, they appear black.

c. Opaque objects that specularly reflect light of different wavelengths with different efficiencies look like mirrors tinted with colors determined by those differences. An object that reflects some fraction of impinging light and absorbs the rest may look black but also be faintly reflective; examples are black objects coated with layers of enamel or lacquer.

What is the point? If all light were reflected, the color you see would be white. If no colors were reflected, (all wavelengths are absorbed by the object upon which light is falling) the color of the object would appear black.

Again, what is the point? People of “color” appear in the vernacular to be, “white.” People of “little or no color” appear “black.” Why not set the record straight and refer to white (Caucasian) Americans as colored people, and Americans of African Heritage, i.e., black Americans, as people of no color. That’s the physics of the matter.

My apologies to Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) for taking liberal license (plagiarizing portions) of their posted materials to help me to explain the physics.

Thoughts from your Red State Patriot …

Posted August 27, 2008 05:41 PM
Read more on Gender and Race