Cardinal Men and Scarlet Women: A Colorful Etymology of Words That Discriminate

Words such as cardinal and scarlet can describe the same color but they take on markedly different meanings when we use them to consider the worth of a cardinal man or a scarlet woman. The comparison seems to conjure significantly more prejudice when we consider that a cardinal man is revered as righteous while a scarlet woman is reviled as wicked, particularly in terms of her sexual activity. In a similar way, by contrasting other pairs of words, we can see how they too invite discriminatory connotations in terms of what we value: Christian and pagan, crusade and jihad, highbrow and lowbrow, wizard and witch, right and left, white and black. Keessen presents this playful yet scholarly study by way of a series of informal essays, arranged by chapter and topic, and in a storytellers lexicon tells us how certain notions developed. Generously illustrated with whimsical illustrations by award winning artist Bill Hannan.