Actually, Faern, I wasn't responding to *your* posting *at all*. I sincerely apologize for lumping you in there. I do appreciate that you question why you didn't notice it.

And I was not thinking of human skin when I envisioned my participation in the project, so yes, I agree that there are more kinds of skin in this world than people skin.

My reaction was triggered when Judy *explicitly* called the color "fleshy". I didn't read anything into it, just had a reaction to the stated intention of the artist.

I should have been more explicit that my racism comment came from my emotional reaction to what the others have written. That was a very strong way to put it 'cause I felt it strongly. Maybe accusatory, even.

(Perhaps I should have *asked* if people felt that "X is in line with my experience/body, so I won't question its validity/power/relevance to others" is a sufficient response to an unchallenged assumption based in a dominant paradigm. But... people don't want to hear that either.)

Faern, I am sorry that your family has felt such abuse due to discrimination. That's just awful, and I have only recently realized that I am guilty of anti-Jewish sentiment, too. Because, in my mind, I have minimized the Jewish experience of oppression by the dominant culture. The Jewish people I grew up with were people of wealth and privilege greater than mine, so I resented and generalized that. It was only *last week* that someone said, "I am Jewish and I don't feel White" and I really heard it for the first time. Live and learn, huh?

I know that no one intended racism here. I know this art project will do no real harm. But shouldn't we question these things when they come up over and over? Shouldn't we not get too comfortable when the system is set up to keep people down and we are unwittingly doing their marketing for them?

Regardless of how I may have handled this episode, I am still triggered by "flesh-colored" band-aids and crayons and "skin-tone" ace bandages and a square of pinky-peach color on a book called "SKIN". There are worse things in the world to be guilty of than having emotions.

lol... western dexteritious hegemony.

thats it, I'm making mine to open upwards like a calendar.

Roger,
I am impressed with your response to this conflict. I completely agree with what you have said. Your response, as I interpret it, is very receptive and thoughtful.
Perhaps the skin is a pinky colour because the artist personally identifies with that colour as her skin. Art can be very personal, and personal connections can weave their way into pieces that may not be intended to be personal.
I unintentionally would identify with that pinky colour as skin because it is representative of my own skin, what I see everyday in the mirror. At the same time I am aware of the various skin colours of the world, and of the various tones within different colours. I am also aware of the different shapes and sizes of different bodies and shapes that make up individual faces.
Anyway, I was inspired to respond because what you have said is so logical and thoughtful at the same time.