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After hearing from a group of caucasian individuals they should be referred to as "white" rather than "blank" in order to avoid offending black and brown people, I decided to launch this project.
I had to consider why I was offended by this. We separate groups into white, black, red and yellow. The term "yellow" is frequently used to describe Asian people's skincolor, which is discriminatory in and of itself. By mentioning this, one person responded "What should we call you then?".
After doing my research about when Asian started to be described as yellow, I soon found out it isn't as clear cut.
In 1736 Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, introduced the term "Luridus", meaning "Pale yellow", to describe the color of the Homo Asiaticus (Asian Man), a term he also introduced.
Luridus was also the term for Linnaeus to characterize unhealthy and toxic plants.
Micahel Keevak, a professor and writer of the book "Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking, argues European anthropologists used the word "yellow" torefer to Asian people because Asia was seductive, mysterious, full of wealth. Yellow had multiple connotations, which included both "serene" and "happy", as well as "toxic" and "impure". This characterization led to the term "yellow peril" of "yellow danger".
One of the first references to the term "yellow peril" can be traced back to a dream of Emperor Wilhelm II. In a dream, the emperor saw a Buddha on the back of a dragon, storming Europe.
