Word: skin
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Tolerance means that one does not use "racial characteristics" as the basis for treating human beings differently one from the other. But freedom from prejudice is a much broader attitude of mind. It means that one does not consider the color of a man's skin as any more significant than the color of his hair, or his shoe size, or the width of his waist. It means that one does not classify men by their skin colors unless for one's purpose in a specific situation such a classifications pertinent. To put it in an extreme form, it means...
...article I refer to there is absolutely no causal connection between the accident and the color of the student's skin. Whether the student is a Negro or a red Indian is completely irrelevant in this particular situation. The mention of his color is therefore completely unnecessary and unjustified. If Mr. John G. Simon '50 had been the victim of the accident the CRIMSON would not have headlined the story: "Trolley Hits Blond-Haired Student...
This article itself illustrates the contrast between a justified and an unjustified descriptive term. The student's blindness obviously bears a significant relation to the accident; his colored skin does not. Therefore, the latter should not have been mentioned, just as his shoe size was omitted...
...sincerely hope that a conscious effort will be made in the future to avoid irrelevant mention of skin colors and the like. I realize that we are all accustomed to notice the color of a man's skin first and foremost. It is his most striking physical characteristic. That is why a conscious effort is absolutely necessary to prevent the description of this characteristic from creeping in where it does not belong. Hans A. Wolf...
...trouble is, says Korzybski, that men too often get the steps of this process mixed up. They speak before observing, then react to their own. verbalization as if it were the fact itself. They confuse what is "inside-the-skin" with external reality. They say "the leaf is green," without realizing that the greenness is within them...