There’s a technique in image-editing called Selective Color. The way it works is to take a color photo and change it to black and white. Then a part of the image is selected and brought back to its natural color. It’s artistic and cool. While saving the image I was working on, the term selective color jumped out at me, as did the words black and white.

I’ve heard of selective hearing where a person hears only what they choose to hear. My dad was hard of hearing but refused to wear a hearing aid and he frequently said, “I hear what I want to hear.” No denying his selective hearing.

There’s also selective breeding, concerning animals and plants (breeding for the best possible characteristics, for example).

All of which made me think of racism and I wondered, am I a racist and if I am what can I do about it?  So I did some digging and discovered my own lack of understanding about some basic terms I’ve been misusing. Continue reading →