#6: "Color of the Year"

 

    

At the end of 2025, Pantone announced that their 2026 Color of the Year is “Cloud Dancer” (PANTONE 11-4201). The company described it as “a lofty white that serves as a symbol of calming influence in a society rediscovering the value of quiet reflection.” From this alone, we should have known how the year was going to unfold.

Similar to my post on Black, one could say White is interpreted as colorless—or perhaps, the reflection of every color. This reflects an entrenched societal understanding of “white(ness)”. Today, white has become the returning wave; supremacists, furniture, nationalism, toes, bigotry, bed sheets, “history”—HA! “History,” that which we understand through imperialism and colonialism. Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, asserted that the chosen color “reflects what people are looking for.” Who are you referring to? Because it’s certainly not me.

In all fairness, the shade is a nod to the rise of “quiet luxury”—the temporal forecast of aristocratic approval that dates back to slavery. Now that’s quiet luxury—reaping the benefits of your wealth while trampling on others backs in the name of power. Not more than a year ago, Donald Trump revoked all DEI initiatives. Affirmative action no longer exists; a system that aided the majority African Americans to become educated, unlike their ancestors, who were punished for reading. We're still being pushed off the sidewalk. What Pantone failed to tell you—while you buy your next “quiet luxury” blazer from Zara—is that this whiteness, this sinister wave, has plagued the lives of your friends and family members of color. That is, in “Trump’s America,” we have become the butt of your jokes, the band-aid to your worries, the slave to your master; as Toni Morrison succinctly put it, “the very serious function of racism is distraction.”

The color white is not colorless but rather a reflection of the colors around it. In theory, it is an achromatic color, so yes, it technically lacks color—but let's probe further. White has often symbolized peace, purity, and cleanliness. I’m going to tell you now, “Please stop doing this.” This interpretation alone has scarred history in the name of “cleanliness.” It’s because of this that wedding dresses are white, that the antediluvian concept of virginity still upholds, it’s the reason why people insist on becoming a “clean girl,” why we still assume sobriety is the act of becoming clean. More importantly, it functions to sterilize color.. Funnily, what we understand as white “light” and/or “noise” is a mixture of red, blue and green  working together. White is the color that penetrates our everyday lives, through imposed societal standards, racial entitlement and the concept of invisible labor while neglecting the colors that make up all its frequency.

In 1968, when the Beatles were challenged to follow up their titanic album St Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, they were at a particular crossroad of American civilization: the assassination of MLK, the brooding Vietnam War, the impending space race, followed by the success of Apollo 7. It would be a year later that the Manson murders would occur, and shake the idyllic prism once lived in the ‘60’s. British artist Richard Hamilton decided that, with so much chaos, perhaps one should look within and reflect. He left the cover almost entirely blank; a minimal, conceptual response to the explosion of color from Sgt Pepper’s but ultimately from the world. Hence, in the popular imagination, The Beatles created the “White Album.”

Robert Fraser, an art dealer, suggested Hamilton to Paul McCartney. At the time, he defined Pop art and became a leading figure in the Independent Group in the late 1950s. He was also, by that stage, a founding father of conceptualism in Britain. Thus, when he decided to strip the album of color, he acknowledged the work's cultural context and audience. In comparison to their previous album, Hamilton wanted a “clean” sheet, and so he did. In Pop-art style, he bridged the gap between high and low culture; to do-over, remix the past and sling it forward into the future.

We should be cautious in how we discuss white. Yes, it is a color that signifies openness—that is, it invites reflection, clears the mind, and offers a new perspective entirely. I want to emphasize that there is nothing wrong with the color white, nor is there anything wrong with white people (we've covered this... the distraction thing...). But it is paramount that one recognizes whiteness as a shield protecting privilege. Although Pantone encourages us to become tranquil and enjoy quiet luxury, we should pause to consider what that truly means—what it genuinely implies: the color white, a reflector of colors, seeking to 'cleanse' them of their 'impurities’. Are people truly seeking a color that has overshadowed their lives?