Fox and Friends was trying to stir it up early this morning.  Flesh colored crayons, colored pencils, and markers are now available from Crayola, the crayon company.  Fox and Friends presented this coloring media in terms of multiculturalism.  Is this an attempt at social engineering by corporate America?

When I was a kid, which granted, has been many years ago, the only choice  for me was pink, even in the 64 box set, which was as big as it got.   People either got to be pink or you left the page white.  If you had brown skin you were actually luckier, you got to get a little closer.  People just aren’t pink or white. 

The colors which are white, black, peach, apricot, tan, burnt sienna, mahogany and sepia  come as thick crayons, colored pencils and markers.  You can probably find all the colors now in a regular large box of crayons, but these are conveniently separated into their  box, exclusively for coloring flesh. The 8 crayons are also more expensive than a box of 24.  It’s probably a money-making gimmick rather than an attempt to blindside our children with ideas of diversity. 

I would say its a good thing to be able to represent ourselves, our friendsm  family and others when we color.  We aren’t all the same color, even within families.  Human beings are diverse.  I see this as a good thing.  And Fox and Friends never misses an opportunity to stir the pot with a little pinch of dissension and a heaping tablespoon of ‘out to get us.’ 

 

 

13 Thoughts to “Flesh-Colored Crayons: The New Multiculturalism?”

  1. Censored bybvbl

    Why is this news now? Crayola didn’t issue this new package of crayons recently.

    Is there some problem with having crayons available in more skin tones than “peach”? Is Faux New’s bias showing? Why, I believe it is… Faux News – the conservative peach network.

  2. DiversityGal

    I love these crayons, and they have been around for years now. Crayola actually used to have a color called “flesh” which was a peachy-pink…very biased. Did Fox talk about that?

    As an elementary school counselor, I love having a crayon collection that conveniently includes a variety of colors which could be used for skin tones. This is a very easy supplement to the standard bulk packs of crayons in more basic colors. We do a lot of drawing in elementary that reflects self, family, and friends.

  3. Since I am one of the oldest posters, I thought I would throw in some “color” commentary. Crayolas have been around since 1903. “Flesh” first hit the scene in 1949 but wouldn’t ou know that something would come along and change all that–the Civil Rights Movement. In addition to all the gains made, “flesh” became “peach” in 1962 in order to be politically correct. There are 120 “core colors” with colors coming and going over the last 108 years with colors coming and going as their utility has waxed and waned. Other names have been changed over time–Prussian Blue is now Midnight Blue and Indian Red is now Chestnut. Indian Red had nothing to do with Native Americans but again a case of PC. Perhaps it should have been called “India” Red since Crayola says it was named for a pigment from India. If you want to see the present colors–go here:

    http://www.crayola.com/colorcensus/history/current_120_colors.cfm

    Then go to our favorite “dime store”, but a box of Crayons and a color book and remember to stay in the lines! 😉

    Then think about sending some of your art work to Faux News.

  4. George, that chart just made my day.
    I don’t remember flesh as a kid. Maybe it was one that was very pink and not really the color of any flesh I had seen.

    I am trying to figure out why the term ‘flesh’ is biased?

    As for why ithe challenge on diversity came out now? I don’t know. I think they included a lesson plan with the crayons recently. I knew they had been around for a while, I just can’t remember how long. And not having little kids or being an elementary teacher, I might have missed the grand introduction.

  5. Wolverine

    Thanks for the memories, George. You made it all come back fast. Tell me again. Why are we in a discussion about crayons? Is this the second childhood thread or something? George is right. “Flesh” has been around for a long, long time. It was always “flesh” for the Lone Ranger and light brown for “Tonto.” I just don’t know about all those youngish whippersnappers in the TV business. They don’t seem to have an institutional memory. Bet we’ll soon see a Jon Stewart peformance about crayon colors.

  6. DiversityGal

    I don’t flesh is a biased term on its own, MH. I just think that deeming flesh as one color (peachy-pink) is biased…as if it was the NORMAL/default flesh color, and the other skin tones were different than the norm.

  7. Raymond Beverage

    Gee, I only had the box with 8 colors as a kid; Moon had the 64. Wow, I was such a deprived child!!!! 🙂

  8. I had one box of 64 and I will never forget the day that I got it. The box was also more squarish than the 64 boc now. For a long time I put each one back from where I had taken it.

    @DG What other name would you give it? Obviously no one was peachy pink.

    Real flesh is red, like raw meat. That isn’t the kind of bias I would lose sleep over…in that great sea of bias out there.

  9. Wolverine, we are discussing it because Fox News felt it newsworthy as an example of multiculturalism. Apparently they thought that Crayola might be brainwashing the kiddlies.

    I thought that strange because it stands to reason that different people have different colored skin. We want to color ourselves, our family, friends, and others correctly.

  10. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    This is very offensive to people of the albino flesh-tone. Racism!

  11. It makes good artistic sense to have these colors available. Would anyone be complaining about oil paint with these colors? How about colored pencils?

    Bob Ross would be offended by Fox’s attempt at artistic oppression.

  12. George S. Harris

    Remember–don’t color outside the lines!

  13. George S. Harris

    At this point in life, “flesh” for me is kind of a very pale tan with light brown spots (freckles) and some scattered dark brown spots (quite often called age spots). So I would like to see a crayon that could duplicate that. Perhaps Crayon should have had colors like, Caucasian Skin Tone, Native American Skin Tone, Dark African Skin Tone, Medium African Skin Tone, White African Skin Tone, Oriental Skin Tone. Of course there would be a foot note that these colors are only approximate matches and not meant to represent the true spectrum of skin tones found in the human race.

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