# It's not easy being green **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 25, 2013, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643 "2013-09-25T14:48:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/21 "2013-09-25T16:18:40Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > Nope. Unless I’m misinformed there’s a reason for skin pigmentation regarding tolerance of the sun and its heat and glare. While that’s no longer a factor in first world countries, it most probably is in some third world nations. :smack: There’s always one in the crowd. Let’s assume that people will have the same protection they had before, o.k.? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/22 "2013-09-25T16:36:03Z")
Only if we get photosynthesis, too. (And, yes, I know we don’t have enough skin area to feed ourselves with photosynthesis. It would only be a boost.) So would that be a yes or a no? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/23 "2013-09-25T16:37:22Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Only if we get photosynthesis, too. (And, yes, I know we don’t have enough skin area to feed ourselves with photosynthesis. It would only be a boost.) > > So would that be a yes or a no? As previously stated, just color. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/24 "2013-09-25T17:05:20Z")
I am partial to a nice [celadon](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Gr%C3%A8s_chinois_Guimet.jpg). Pity about the lack of photosynthesis though.☹ ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/25 "2013-09-25T17:06:55Z")
There is only one green for me, British Racing Green. It’s dignified and goes with everything. And while I agree that people will find lots of other things to discriminate about (they already do, of course, tribalism lives forever) most of them aren’t so immediately visible (and so prone to ignorant assumptions) as skin color. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/26 "2013-09-25T17:14:36Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Probably not. Green’s not my favorite color to begin with and I don’t expect it would even come close to making a dent in discrimination. You are 100% right. However, if someone offers me a nice, shiny button…a bright _candy_-colored button to push, we are all going to be some green motherfuckers. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/27 "2013-09-25T18:34:56Z")
If I woke up looking more like an orc than usual, I’m not responsible for the consequences! Blue, on the other hand… ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/28 "2013-09-25T18:42:10Z")
I voted no. The camouflage effect would only be fun for 4 months out of the year. Besides, I like the many colors of humankind, even though we’re often stupid enough to think one color is better than another. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/29 "2013-09-25T20:17:48Z")
I wouldn’t push it - if anything, I’d prefer human colors to be much more diverse not less. But if I had to choose, I think I’d pick greenish-black. > [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > Wow. You know, this didn’t even occur to me. My thought pattern was, “Green, yuck! That’s my least favorite color. I wouldn’t want to be green, nor would I want to look at a bunch of green people.” The idea that we would all be the same color never entered my mind. That was my immediate thought, along with [The Lathe of Heaven](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lathe_of_Heaven). > [@](#): > > When Haber directs George to dream a world without racism, the skin of everyone on the planet becomes a uniform light gray. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/30 "2013-09-25T21:31:12Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I wouldn’t push it - if anything, I’d prefer human colors to be much more diverse not less. But if I had to choose, I think I’d pick greenish-black. Unfortunately there are plenty of other ways for people to be racist apart from skin colour, just as an example, if everyone on Earth suddenly became light grey in skin-tone the racists would just pick on something else like people of European descent having stereotypically long narrow noses and people of African descent having wider flat noses. If someone is determined to be a jerk they’ll find a way to be a jerk. btw I recently started a thread kind, sorta, like this one! _(only I chose the more aesthetically pleasing blue)_ > **[Why do people 'fight the hypothetical'?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=701581)** > > Just wondering what the basis behind this behaviour is, you see it in almost all threads where someone posits a hypothetical scenario or question, no matter how specific and closed the conditions are someone or more usually some people attempt to... ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/31 "2013-09-25T21:42:39Z")
> [@Disposable Hero](#): > > Unfortunately there are plenty of other ways for people to be racist apart from skin colour, just as an example, if everyone on Earth suddenly became light grey in skin-tone the racists would just pick on something else like people of European descent having stereotypically long narrow noses and people of African descent having wider flat noses. Yes. _“No Irish need apply”;_ there’s not even a need to go into hypotheticals. There’s plenty of ethnic hatred in the real world between various sub-groups of the “official races”. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky\_the\_Wonder\_Spirit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Sparky\_the\_Wonder\_Spirit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky_the_Wonder_Spirit)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/32 "2013-09-25T21:47:05Z")
> [@Disposable Hero](#): > > Unfortunately there are plenty of other ways for people to be racist apart from skin colour, just as an example, if everyone on Earth suddenly became light grey in skin-tone the racists would just pick on something else like people of European descent having stereotypically long narrow noses and people of African descent having wider flat noses. Yeah, the idea that having everyone be the same color would somehow ‘cure’ racism is naive, at best. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/33 "2013-09-25T22:14:08Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Yes. _“No Irish need apply”;_ there’s not even a need to go into hypotheticals. There’s plenty of ethnic hatred in the real world between various sub-groups of the “official races”. Definitely, I am actually Irish and a few years back experienced an incident that was amusing in retrospect but not at the time. I had just moved to Manchester, England, for university and didn’t really know my way around. I was in my early twenties and I’m of fairly average height and build, dirty blonde hair, fair skin and blue eyes, I was in Manchester city centre looking at a map on a sign and trying to work out how to get to where I wanted to go. I obviously had perplexed look on my face, because I heard behind me, “Where are you wanting to go mate?” I turned around to meet a facefull of muscled chest, looked up, up again, at a _huge_ black man. He seemed friendly enough, but I was taken by surprise and stammered, “Ah, its OK, I know where I’m going” _(the truth, I’d just worked it out)_ He gave me what can only be described as a death stare, before practically spitting out, “Fuckin’ _Irish_” and turning on his heel. So naturally I stepped forward and snapped his neck like a dry twig. Actually not really, I had the distinct feeling I had very narrowly dodged a bullet. This was a few years after the Manchester bombing when the IRA blew the heart out of the city and I imagine his hostility came from that, but it wasn’t a comfortable position to be in. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/34 "2013-09-25T22:32:02Z")
> [@Sparky\_the\_Wonder\_Spirit](#): > > Yeah, the idea that having everyone be the same color would somehow ‘cure’ racism is naive, at best. You are so right. Of course, no one here has said anything even close to that… ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/35 "2013-09-25T22:51:27Z")
i’d push it, just for shits and giggles. Having everyone in the world the exact same colour would be a hoot.😃 I’d pick a nice emerald green. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/36 "2013-09-25T23:05:48Z")
Green? No. Blue? Maybe. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/37 "2013-09-25T23:11:35Z")
Forest Green, maybe. For people who don’t like green, Olive in **Czarcasm** ’s link looks like a legitimate human color on my monitor, kind of in the middle of our range. ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/38 "2013-09-25T23:18:54Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Not everything-just people. Sorry I read it wrong. I still read it as turning people green as making the more concerned with the planet. However green is as good a color as any but it’s going to be awfully hard to tell people apart if everybody is the same shade of green. Would it be just the skin, or hair and eyes are going to be green too? For those of us who already have facial recognition problems having everybody being the same color is going to be rough. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2013, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/39 "2013-09-26T00:00:35Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I am partial to a nice [celadon](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Gr%C3%A8s_chinois_Guimet.jpg). Pity about the lack of photosynthesis though.☹ I was thinking the same thing. We agree. 🙂 As for the _other people_, people who don’t agree with me…don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry. ---
**Author:** ![Black\_Bisector](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ce73a5/32.png) [@Black\_Bisector](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Bisector)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2013, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643/40 "2013-09-26T00:10:00Z")
Yes, and just regular old green. Then I could FINALLY have the smoking hot sex with the Zentradi hot alien space babes I’d always wanted! Can I turn ALL THE HAIR blue too? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-easy-being-green/669643.md?page=3)