Utopian color words like purple function as strategies for avoiding race

Evidence

Mana’s utopian/humanistic use of “purple” as a hyperbolic racial category recalls, in some ways, Ruth Frankenberg’s respondents in White Women, Race Matters and her analysis that referring to races like “green, yellow, pink” is “euphemism or strategy for avoiding race: it shifts attention away from color differences that make a political difference by embedding meaningful differences among non-meaningful ones.” — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness, 1499

Categorization

• XREF: Connects Mana’s ‘purple’ utopianism to Frankenberg’s analysis of color-euphemism as race-avoidance, and to the reader’s strategic essentialism research — is a retreat from race-naming a strategy of disavowal rather than ironic holding? — connects to: Trinidad’s color hierarchy measured privilege in gradations finer than race — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1166; Antiracial colorblindness erases the very vocabulary needed to press racial claims — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 122; Forcing colorblindness or identity forsaking backfires and worsens intergroup relations — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 577 (+3 more)
• QUESTION: Could the ‘purple’/‘green, yellow, pink’ move be read as the utopian inverse of strategic essentialism — strategic nominalism, temporarily refusing racial hinges rather than occupying them?

Broader Connections

• Antiracial colorblindness erases the very vocabulary needed to press racial claims #complicates (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 122
• Trinidad’s color hierarchy measured privilege in gradations finer than race #complicates (0.80) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1166
• Politically coded language can carry racial meaning without naming race #corroborates (0.80)
• A strategic political identity can unite people across skin-color differences #contradicts (0.80) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 244
• Colorblindness and neoliberalism rose together as mutually reinforcing hegemonies #corroborates (0.78) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 210
• Forcing colorblindness or identity forsaking backfires and worsens intergroup relations #corroborates (0.75) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 577