One color, one shade

Alyssa Conner

“Asians can be considered Twinkies,” one of my roommates said while discussing Halloween costumes. “You guys are yellow on the outside and white on the inside.”

Somehow my friend veered off-topic to people’s skin color all because of the idea costume of a Twinkie. I never understood why people have to be stereotyped as a color, and why it’s only with three colors – yellow, black and white.

People sometimes identify Asian-Americans as Twinkies because we are yellow on the outside, but white on the inside. I find it awkward to be referenced as a “Twinkie,” and it made me wonder why Asians are considered yellow. Our skin tone doesn’t look remotely close to the shade of yellow, not even a pastel yellow.

When I think of the color yellow I think of bananas and sunflowers. As delicious as Twinkies taste and as pretty as sunflowers are, I would prefer not to be described as the color yellow.

In comparison, African-Americans are labeled as black and Caucasians are considered white. Clearly African-Americans are not black and Caucasians are not white. If so, then our world would be very bland and boring. I remember when I was younger I would refer to white people as “peach” and black people as “brown” because that’s how I saw their true skin color.

People interchangeably reference African-Americans and Caucasians as “Oreos” if they do not act how society expects. People sometimes consider an African American with more Caucasian friends than black ones to be an Oreo. I’ve heard people say, “You are black on the outside but have a white person’s heart.” Vice versa for Caucasians if they are white in the inside, but “act black” on the outside.

I have an African-American friend who hangs out with Caucasians more often than she does black people. She said her black friends joke with her sometimes by calling her an Oreo. She said she doesn’t take any offense to it because she doesn’t feel skin color should matter.

I have no idea how this trend started, and why skin colors are described as food beats me. But it brings up a valid point that we should not be stereotyping people in such ways, let alone at all. Some people don’t mind being called an Oreo or think it is funny, but accepting such comments opens the gate for people to judge you in derogatory ways. People wonder why discrimination and racism is such an issue in the world today; it starts with stereotypical references.

Census figures have shown an increase in all interracial marriages, according to an April 2007 Associated Press story. “More than 7 percent of America’s 59 million married couples in 2005 were interracial, compared to less than 2 percent in 1970,” the article stated.

Personally, I feel it is a sign that one day skin color will not be a determinant in society. People will not be judged if they are white, black, yellow, purple, etc. I hope people see that skin color is just someone’s feature, not a qualification of identity. One day, we will be able to look past the color of people’s skin. One day, we will all be considered one color.

Alyssa Conner is a junior public relations major and a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].