The latter half is not an open question, but an honest one. However I'll get to that later.

While it may not seem so, I am very fascinated with many cultures all around the world. Regardless of how many agree or disagree with their politics or certain parts of said culture, I've always been fascinated by the historical value of it regardless if it's part of my own background or not. If I had the money, I would pretty much buy every known religious text and at least a souvenir from each country in hopes to connect the world in various ways. So naturally Black History Month is right up my ally.

While most people view this month mostly for the civil rights movement and for good reason as figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X has been so ingrained with it that even to this day, them and other figures have been talked about for damn near a century. It is also the month to show appreciation for black culture as a whole, whether it's African Culture, Carribean Culture or even Western Culture. From Harriet Tubman to Muhammed Ali, there has been so much ingrained from the west alone. Athletes, Inventors, War Heroes or even just regular every day Joes that got a chance for fame, glory and an opportunity to help change the world and help the race and culture as a whole be more recognized for it. Of course, there have been speedbumps along the way which I won't mention because this is not a political newspost. However as a whole the culture has persevered and endured a lot by themselves as well as with allies of other races. Yes including white people.

However, with all that said there is one question that always intrigued me. Something that I've always wanted to know since I first knew about the differences in race? Where do these specific colour names come from?

When you get right down to it, a white person for example, unless very pale or suffering from a skin condition, isn't really white in terms of colour. When you take a close look at their skin, depending on nationality and environment, their skin colour is more of a pink, beige and in some cases through tanning, light brown.

A black person, doesn't really have black skin either as, like I said before, depending on nationality and environment, they range from Light to Dark Brown.

Someone who is in middle eastern asian, is referred to as brown, but that does make sense because save for a select few who have a more paler pigment, they range from light to dark brown in terms of skin colour.

Then you have the one's that make less sense. For example, before they changed it for political correctness, The Natives were referred to the following: Redskin, Red man. I've met Natives, Canada is full of them and it doesn't take me much to visit a reservation. Hell, while it's small compared to the rest of my background which is mostly European, I myself am native. Their skin often ranges from light tan to dark brown. Not a single one shows any red unless it's on their ceremonial paint of their respective tribes. One could say cartoons like Peter Pan brought out this misconception, by giving the Natives a reddish brown look. However, they had to have gotten the idea from somewhere even if it's bullshit.

Then there's Far East Asians. Whether they're Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Laos, Vietnamese, Filipino and so on, they are often referred to as one colour. Yellow. Yet unless they contracted some sort of sickness(Which let's be reasonable a white person would turn yellow if they got afflicted with something too), their skin colour ranges from pink, to beige and in some cases a tan or dark brown.

On top of these being completely inaccurate, they come across as just as racist as what many oppressors including self-loathers do on a daily basis. I often wonder where it comes from.

Funnily enough, while I myself was thinking of this for a long time. Recently the whole thing was inspired by a comedic moment in the famous Blaxploitation movie Shaft. For those that don't know, Shaft was a series of movies that starred Richard Roundtree as the title character. A private detective that goes through extreme lengths to get the job done. Basically the African American equivalent to Dirty Harry (Both who's first movies were released in 1971.) The actor later reprised his role twice in two Shaft Movies starring Samuel L. Jackson. In one scene he's butting heads with NYPD Lt. Vic Androzzi. Bare in mind this movie takes place both in-universe and IRL in 1971, just 7 years after the Civil Rights Act was officially passed. If you though tensions between the African American/Canadian communities and local law enforcement was bad now, back then both were constantly at each other's throats trying to get used to one another. Even if you happen to be black and working for law enforcement, it doesn't make things easier. As shown when Private Eye Shaft often refuses to give Police Lt. Androzzi any intel regarding certain crimes he knows about. So naturally in a movie that was in the early 70s they made it as funny as possible, albeit with stuff that wouldn't fly today. Such as race related roast offs. None so over the top as this scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzabuGq1wIE

In it after butting heads with Androzzi, both let one snark each before they part ways for their parts of the adventures. Androzzi takes a black pen and puts it next to Shaft's face saying "You ain't so black." Shaft counters by saying "You ain't so white baby." while putting a white coffee mug next to Androzzi's face. To me, while it wouldn't fly today, I just thought it was a hilarious scene, but it did get me thinking. Where exactly did this classification come from and would it be more politically correct to change it or are we so used to the labels that we just can't?

That aside, I hope this year's history month goes on successfully and who knows, maybe if we all got to know each other a lot more, we'd not fight each other all the time.