Color Lines
Q: "How many color lines are there?"
A: Well ... I think
there's an infinite amount of color lines.
My working definition of color here would
have to be: that which is visually indicated through the eye ... and
everybody has a different lens. The line is personal discretion, the point where we seek
to devalue the worth of one thing over another or differentiate things from other things or ourselves from other people when everything
is essentially a part of (to borrow from Paulo Coelho) "The Soul of the World."
DuBois'
Color Line was simply black and white (as most color lines are
monochromatic). Today most social theorist who discuss racial color
lines have also adopted the "color of money" line into the conversation
of race and class issues such as William Julius Wilson in his book, The Declining Importance of Race,
which proposes that the only color that really matters is green and it
even suggests that those of stereotyped racial groups transcend the
barrier of race if they are green enough (doesn't mean they care about
the environment). Regardless of the Color Line(s) that one is familiar
with, the problems they promote can be best summed up by Frederick
Douglass in his essay 'The Color Line':
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Many lines. And mixed. Went last night to Showmans bar where a trio played old song with an old feeling. Some jazz standards but mostly pop standards from the growing up days of the strikingly elderly crowd. This was a place of nostalgia, across a 'line' from the mentalities out in the street. The drummer was dazzling but quiet. The saxman never let loose but constantly crossed the 'line' between thoughtful and emotional. The B3 organ was animated and made musical references to every genre while dancing on his bench. I talked with a 66 year old gentleman named Warren who gave me a CD of his vocal group and he bemoaned the 'lines' emerging from what he said was the breakdown in family and musical traditions.Later in the evening a cluster of Italian women came in, and a straggling line of the organists students. The bartender Lil called most people by name and talked about jazz not being dead because Wynton had just played at her church (at $100 a ticket). How many lines there?
Talking about lines between us - how we manufacture them and bridge them - is a responsible thing to do, although many of us shy away from it. The pretense of uniformity is a warm blanket.