Black or White man?

When I was in elementary school and it was time to use the box of colors, I remember trying to draw and color people. At first I colored white people with a 'White' color but was disappointed. I did not look like that. One of the smart girls in class sat next to me and she said to use the 'Flesh' color. It did not look like me. Another time I tried to color a black man on my paper. I used a 'Black' color. I did not remember seeing a person that looked like that either. I was disappointed with my artistic effort again.

I began forming my thoughts about race in elementary school art class. I tried to mix basic colors to get other colors, you know, red+blue = purple, red+white = pink. I mixed black and white colors to get a 'properly' colored man on my art paper. I never saw a 'Gray' man. I was disappointed again. It's the art of observation (peeking at other students papers) that helped me get it right. I saw a paper with brown men and light brown men (closer to my appearance). That's what I started to do (copy).

I discovered we say stupid things about race, ALL of us. 'Nigger' (yes, it is a vile word and should not be used by anyone!) is used and has been determined to be so bad that only dark brown people are authorized to use it. 'Red' and 'Yellow', 'Black' and 'White' people have never existed either. What colors should we tell the elementary students to use in art class? What labels should we use to describe our origins in Social Studies classes? African-American could be used to describe Egyptians who immigrate here. African-American could be used to describe White SouthAfricaans who immigrate here also. I would never use European-American about myself.

History is past. We are here and have, by birth, or legal immigration become 'Americans'. What color are Americans? I say 'Brown' and all shades of brown. All of us need to get a bit smarter than our ancestors. Stop using incorrect, insulting, abusive, combative labels. Recolor the little man on your art work.