March 9, 2009
Ben Robb
[email protected]
The color orange has made social strides in recent decades, but discrimination based on color has not yet been eradicated in many spheres. In order to take a much needed step toward boosting awareness of the accomplishments of the color orange, we, the Orange Representatives Against Negative, Gloss-based Exclusionary Speech (ORANGES), wish to propose the designation of the month of March as Orange History Month.
Orange History Month will help remind all things orange that it’s good to be orange. We want all things orange to remember that, even if they’ve accomplished little or nothing individually, they still have value, not because other orange things have, but because all tints have innate value. What better way to communicate this than designating a month to remember orange accomplishments through the centuries. ORANGES has chosen the month of March because the last of the late-season oranges will have been harvested. We believe March will prove the most poignant and inclusive month in which to celebrate all the accomplishments and virtues of the color orange.
We realize that not every color has a month designated for its remembrance, but considering the years of appalling discrimination and the general ignorance regarding the history of orange, we feel that special recognition is warranted. A little positive discrimination will help undo years of negative discrimination. Perhaps it will even raise awareness of ongoing negative discrimination.
Colors that have been so systematically oppressed ought to focus their complete attention on themselves and the healing process. How can an orange thing live undivided in a blue or green world? It’s like orange things are warring with a two-toned soul. Only the color orange can get a glimpse of life behind the valencia veil because only orange has been placed there. Orange wants to be rightly included in the spectrum of history curriculum at all educational institutions, and an exclusive period of reflection on orange is, naturally, the way forward.
ORANGES can confidently speak for the color orange when we declare that orange is tired of being treated like a second-class color by supremacists like green, blue and aquamarine. Too long has blue stared at orange from across the color wheel, flaunting its share of the pie and crowing about its nearer proximity to violet – sweet, sweet violet. This so-called complimentary color has, for years, attempted to crush orange to the seed, but orange will continue to bloom in spite of this as long as seeds of hope are planted – planted during the month of March.
The list of reasons to celebrate the color orange is long. For example, orange has overcome adversity in Northern Ireland, celebrating itself publicly despite constant strife with the color green. Though some have criticized orange’s focus on its differences from green, we feel that every color should have the right to focus on itself – well, not every color. Blue certainly shouldn’t have that right after its behavior toward orange. And things in Northern Ireland are so much more stable: Orange-related inter-color terrorism is way down in recent years.
But the list of orange accomplishments doesn’t end there. The color orange is a very inclusive color, blending well with all kinds of reds and yellows. Even where the color orange has evolved into a salmon or a rust, we embrace these expressions of orange into the grove of all that is orange, and plan to include them in our celebration of Orange History Month. This inclusivity is one of the many things we’ll highlight while exclusively dwelling on orange during March.
ORANGES’ primary message is that orange is endowed with the same unalienable and God-given rights as every shade, and our organization exists to see those rights realized and preserved. Though the soul of the color orange has been crushed in the past – beaten in fact, to a pulp – orange things everywhere demand recognition that they are as much a color as every other color every month of the year. We hope light on every wavelength will join orange in thinking primarily about orange during March.
Watch this space for developments in ORANGES’ plans to increase orange presence in the work place and at top schools around the country.