The Purple People

“Love Your Color!” blazed in rainbow bubble letters above my head. I began reading my prepared motivational speech with as much enthusiasm as I could, while keeping the seriousness of the cause in my tone, body language, and diction. I respect the Love Your Color Organization. I am proud to be its founding member.

This is an entry from my journal, two years before I began the campaign:

“I’m not bored, I’m frustrated and there’s a fucking difference. My decision to use the word “fucking” also means I’m probably angry about it. I’m tired and I want to go home. Home within myself where I haven’t been since I was a young child. Please show me the way. Please restore my hope. Please realign me with my purpose. Please understand.”

I remember slamming my journal shut. I could not take another minute of my self-pity. Not that my expression was particularly pitiful that day. It was raw and searching and at the same time, lost. I asked for guidance, however, and guidance came:

The Color Wheel

I clicked the button on my remote and the slide deck displayed a huge color palette behind me. Facing the audience, I continued.

Having been born a minority, I saw discrimination daily. The masses shift their eyes but you still feel them in your peripherals. It’s judgment, and it hangs in the air like the smell of bad fish to us. After all this time, and all the battles won, you still smell the bad fish. What can I do to help people like me? I can’t change other people’s behavior or their opinions, I can only change mine. So, the color wheel popped into my head. If I can erase my color and the color of my partner, I can’t be judged for it. I was excited at the idea.

Now, somehow, I can hear my ancestors getting mighty upset at this idea. I imagine my grandmother would tell me that no grandchild of hers would deny our proud heritage. We fought hard for recognition and I’m throwing it all away. Maybe she’d be right. But maybe, just maybe, she thought the bad fish smell would have dissipated by now. Maybe she’d be willing to try another color? We have to do something, right?

My color is purple. You can be blue or pink or orange or whatever you like. Purple goes well with my skin tone. I have a friend who chose green at first but changed their mind quickly after being sexually approached by Trekkers daily. Yes, they still exist. Some people say it’s like wearing a mask. But, people wear masks all the time! A business suit can be a mask if worn by an artist. Makeup and botox are masks that we accept regularly. If you love your color, people may think you’re different but they forget entirely about the bad fish.

The crowd murmured at this comment. People started to whisper and lean into what I was saying.

I didn’t think it would catch on like it did. We have over fifty-five point five million minorities aligned with the organization. That’s twenty-five percent of all minorities joining the color movement. You can choose how dramatic your transformation is. It’s all a matter of personal choice. Most of us use gender neutral pronouns, but you don’t have to. If you want to be the green Star Trek chick, that’s one hundred percent yours to own and rock. We don’t collect membership fees, ask for donations, or push an agenda on anyone. We simply say, love your color! Change it daily if you want to! And we aren’t just a group for minorities. Yes, it’s true, that is what caused me to lead this charge. But, those in the majority are welcome to join in and do! So far, it’s only a little less than five percent of the majority, roughly eleven million, but there are many who have supported us long before the Color Movement. We do not aim to exclude anyone, including those who do not wish to join. Here are the four principles of our beliefs:

1. We are not a church, cult, or for-profit organization;

2. You do not need to “join” to participate. Your color choice is your decision to align with us. You can try it one day and abandon it the next. Come and go as much as you like;

3. We respect every person’s decision to do what they want with their body. Period. End of story. Only you know what’s best for you. You don’t need us interfering. This is the organization’s position on all controversial topics.

4. We do not exclude, belittle, or shun anyone for their choice to join or not join the Color Wheel.

Although we don’t ask for donations, you are free to donate money, goods, or your time to our charitable organization if you so choose. We, of course, do sell our brand of colors for your skin. All proceeds stay within the charitable goals of the organization, or in the case of surplus, go to help the underprivileged in our local communities.

Are there any questions?

A young person, proudly displaying orange rose in the front row. After collecting themself, they said, “Instead of being shunned or bullied because of my race, people sometimes call me weird. What advice do you have in this situation?”

I thought for a moment, then replied.

I have a question for you instead of an answer. Are you weird? Do you want to be like everyone else? Isn’t weirdness defined as something different, strange, or extraordinary to the observer? I have to believe if you are proudly wearing orange like that regularly, you are already in touch with your weirdness. Don’t think of it as a bad thing. Make it positive. Own it. Be weird. If you like yourself, that’s all that matters.

The young person nodded their agreement, smiled, and took their seat.

Anyone else?

An older feminine displaying red raised a hand. I gestured in her direction. Angrily, the feminine confronted, “Aren’t you afraid that some purple is going to get caught committing violence and that you will be grouped in with their bad behavior?”

I adjusted my purple taffeta blazer, then spoke.

This has already happened. You didn’t hear about it because that purple person was judged for their behavior, not their color choice. The first few bad actors displaying color were associated with the group, yes. But that’s as ridiculous as saying people who like to wear jean jackets are more prone to violence than other people. The purple was wearing a jean jacket at the time.

The crowd hummed a bit at that. Someone in the back shouted encouragingly, “Do you think you’ve cured racism?”

I do not, no. I replied.

“Why not?” They yelled.

Because we’re all born wearing a color and the need to do anything to respond to how you’re treated because of it, means there will always be racism.

The crowd fell silent.