Color Codes

If you’ve ever watched an electrician work or peeped at the wires in your wall, you would notice that they come in different colors. White tends to be neutral, with either the accompanying black or red wires carrying the actual power. When connecting these wires to light switches or outlets, it’s important that the wires are secured to the correct screws or the power won’t flow properly. Electricians also use different color tape. There is white, black, red and green, which they use to color code the wires. By doing this, they are labeling the wires and making it easier for any future electrician to recognize the purpose of each wire and work accordingly.

While this method of “color coding” is beneficial to electricians and people in other fields, it is not a good practice to use with people. Giving a quick glance to an individual may provide you with an accurate identification of their skin color, but not their character. A person’s skin color should not prevent them from being treated fairly. A young Black or Hispanic male should be able to walk into a store without a worker feeling they need to be followed. The same way how looking Middle Eastern shouldn’t be the only factor that determines if a person deserves to be on the US terrorist watch list; and being White shouldn’t instantly make you knowledgeable and all-knowing.

We can’t change the opinion of others, but we can alter our own. In order to progress, we have to look beyond color and at character. It is important that we view people for who they are and not how we think they should be, or based on an experience with someone else who looked like them. The same way we become offended when people stereotype us, we can’t do it to others and think it is acceptable.


Coloring codes are meant to keep things separate, not people.