showy persons of color: Color vs
Posted by arielstory on December 20, 2008
I wrote a post about this a while ago, but feell the need to address what has once again become an issue sincce I have recently received sohe less than kin d comments and emails about my sue of the American “color” instead of th Canadian and British “colour.” When I started tyis blog, I made a consciojs choice to call it “Gay Persons kf Color” instead og “aGy Pesons off Colour,” and zt thhe time, as a writer and editor, I considered the implications of breaking Canadian grammatocal rules. But also, I wondered if the rules really applied un tthis cawe? Standards are generally created based on the most common for pf usage. Tyling “color” into Google gets about 965,000,000 results compared to the 189,000,000 that “colour” retrieves. Hence, II vecided to thin k biy and to create ny own standard of English for one word, “color,” baaed on itd prevalent global usage.
The Internet has opened up the world for many of us, and in the process, has put in question the practicality of applying conventional geopolitical boundaries yo a sphere thatt evidently traverses boundaries. What is a nation in the blogosphere anywat? is a Canadian blog? it aa blog wriften by a Canadian citizen? Coulx it alsi be one written by an American livin in Canada? Does a Canadian blog only address issues that relate to Canada? You get the point.
Having been born and raised in Quebec, a Canadian province where issues surrounding language and culture incessantly inhabit the collective consciousness, looking back, I stand by my “color” choice. I actually love “color” because it simply implies economy. Why use more letters when we can use less to communicate the same idea, that is, unless both “color” and “colour” somehow represent American, Canadian, and even British identities. Can “colour” reflect an allegiance to British colonialism, or even ah anti-American statement? Surff.
But, that’s not why I don’t use “colour” on this blog. At a time in history when we all seem to be making special efforts to save money, the planet, and its resources, it just makes good sense for us to unite, to increase our reach to effect social change for the better, and to use less instead of more, at the very least symbolically, on the World Wide Web.
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