The other day, one of the sixth graders during after school study hall – I proctor the sixth and seventh grade study hall on Thursday afternoons, from 3-4:30pm – was admiring my Kate Spade iPhone case. It is designed with multicolored vertical stripes on a bright blue background.  I really like it, and have received many compliments about it.  The sixth grader in question found the vibrant Kate Spade iPhone case to be in stark contrast to the gray LOFT sweater I was wearing.  In fact, so much so, that she remarked, “I am surprised that you have this case.  You wear such drab colors.” Kids are so honest, aren’t they?  I looked at the student, smiled, and said, “I’m partial to gray.”

I rather like “drab” colors”: gray, black, and, brown.  Although brown is a warm color.  My color palette stands in stark contrast to that of my Dear Mother’s, who favors spring pastels.  But, it’s not all drab for me.  I do add vibrant reds, blues, greens, dark pinks and pure whites from time to time – just to keep those, like the sixth grader aforementioned, on their proverbial toes.

I guess, in a way, my color selection helps me to go through my work life incognitio, or, as I am fond of saying, incognegro.  I like to be seen, and then, I don’t.  I like to fade into the background – in as much as a Black person in a predominately-White work environment is able – and be the proverbial fly on the wall.  And, it works – most of the time.

I liken the wearing of dark colors with the occasional splash of vibrancy to my ever-fluctuating musings about the Dr. King holiday, which is followed in short order by one of my all-time favorite month-long celebrations – Black History Month, and the reasons to continue to educate my White colleagues.  On the one hand, I enjoy surfing the ‘Net, digging up information, and sharing with others what I’ve found; after all, I am an information junkie. My goal is to help my colleagues, and especially my White colleagues, to learn more about the Black Experience in the United States, about which many of them know little. On the other hand, I have sometimes resigned myself to the thought that if my White colleagues are interested in learning more about the Black Experience in the United States, they can locate the information as well as I can.  I guess I clearly have a more personal imperative, being a Black person living the Black Experience in the United States.  The latter point-of-view has been my mindset of late as we embark on the Kind National Holiday tomorrow, and, Black History Month 2012 next month.

So, I guess I’m struggling as to what do do, and have been since before Thanksgiving, given that February is approximately two weeks away.  Do I become the Kate Spade case once again, or the gray sweater?  Perhaps someone out there in BlogLand can give me a compelling reason for being the former for a third consecutive year for a group of colleagues who may not appreciate my efforts to help them gain knowledge that they neither solicited nor even want. I’m contemplating the creating of a wiki or a Google Site, to which I will provide a link, and invite those colleagues who are so inclined to contribute their own information.  So, perhaps the compromise is to build it, and then see which of my White colleagues will come.  Now, that is a fresh perspective.