Are you a chromophobe? Or perhaps a chromophiliac? You know how things and spaces in the West tend to be saturated with neutrals, earthy tones, and a minimalist aesthetic? Why? Why do wardrobes (guilty!), homes, streets, and other spaces in Western societies exclude colour?
Might be the result of centuries of anti-colour conditioning, a.k.a. chromophobia. Chromophobia is a fear/aversion to colours that is usually a conditioned response.
In the book, Chromophobia, the author suggests that this fear/aversion of colour represents a fear of contamination through colour that has been nurtured over centuries in Western cultural and intellectual thought.
In much the same vein, other writers refer to this dominant aversion to colour as “the aesthetics of coloniality” (2013a; 2010) and a system of “chromo-eugenics” (2013a; 2013b). Understanding it in this way, chromophobia involves the naturalization of colourful aesthetics as deviant, unintelligent, and uncivilized…. and the naturalization of “the ideal of a homogenous chromatic society” (2013a, 103) (think: White nationalism).
Colour policing appears throughout modern history and always involves explicit or implicit discrimination of the (coloured) Other. Even nowadays. Writer Sandra Cisneros, for example, painted her San Antonio house purple and it resulted in national condemnation and a lawsuit (she won).
In essence, colour (or chromophobia) lies at the heart of politics of race, heteronormativity (think: rainbow flag), and inclusion. Because of this, colour is also a tool for resistance and resilience and for constructing a more inclusive meta-narrative of us, all of us.