Pantone 2026: In the Name of Equality, Are We Becoming More Racist?

Pantone has chosen Cloud Dancer as its Colour of the Year for 2026. The moment this soft white hue was revealed, the internet erupted. Accusations against Pantone 2026 ranged from being politically deaf to endorsing white supremacy.
For some critics, choosing white was equated with choosing white skin — the Aryan race — and placing it above all others. In this reading, a white Colour of the Year becomes an alleged endorsement of white nationalism, supposedly relegating people of colour to the margins.

Let’s pause. What is actually behind Pantone 2026 — and what belongs more to collective hysteria than to reason?

Pantone 2026 Cloud Dancer: What’s Really Behind This Colour?

Since 1999, Pantone — the global authority on colour — has selected a Colour of the Year meant to reflect the cultural mood. Founded in 1962 in the United States, the company introduced this concept at the turn of the millennium, and it has since become a ritual across fashion, beauty, design and marketing.

Scarlett Johansson in Prada

For 2026, Pantone chose Cloud Dancer, a nuanced white. According to the brand, the colour:

“Visually represents a space to create, like a blank page ready for you to turn your inspiration into reality. It gives us the ability to become receptive both to what can be and what’s ahead, as Cloud Dancer suggests the inner peace we feel after clearing the noise around us. Chosen for its calming presence, its ability to inspire reflection, and its versatility across design, it offers an open foundation for creative exploration with colour.”

This is not a manifesto. It is a design statement.

This Is Not New: Pantone and the Language of Neutrals

Pantone has a long history of choosing restrained, introspective colours during moments of global uncertainty.
Classic Blue (2020) reflected collective anxiety on the eve of the pandemic. Ultimate Gray (2021), paired with Illuminating Yellow, symbolised resilience and cautious optimism. Soft beiges, sands and muted tones have repeatedly appeared when the world needed grounding rather than provocation.

Cloud Dancer fits squarely into this lineage. It signals pause, reset and openness — not ideology.

Colour Is Not Ideology

A colour is not an ideology.
A symbol is not a political programme.
And a design choice is not a moral declaration.

The backlash around Pantone 2026 reveals a deeper cultural confusion: the inability — or refusal — to distinguish between aesthetic language and political intent. When every neutral signifier is forced to carry ideological guilt, interpretation turns into accusation, and nuance disappears.

White, in this context, is not speaking about race. It is speaking about space.

Sydney Sweeney in Miu Miu

What Some People Claim to See Behind Cloud Dancer

Among the most repeated accusations online:

• White supremacy
• Comparisons with the American Eagle campaign, where Sydney Sweeney appeared in an all-denim look under the slogan “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” — a wordplay on genes
• Racism, implied rather than demonstrated

The common thread is projection: a cultural reflex to interpret symbols through the most hostile possible lens.

What White Actually Means in Physics and Art

Before weaponising colour, it helps to understand what white is.

In Physics (Light)

• The presence of all colours: White light contains the full visible spectrum (RGB).
• Reflection: White objects appear white because they reflect nearly all wavelengths of light.

In Art (Pigment)

• Subtractive logic: In painting, adding pigments leads toward darker tones.
• The base of all tints: White is essential to create lighter versions of every colour.

White reflects all colours. It excludes none.
To recast it as a symbol of oppression is not progress — it is a misunderstanding of both science and culture.

Dior Pre-Fall 2026

Understanding the Sensitivity — Without Endorsing the Conclusion

It is fair to recognise why these reactions exist. Conversations around race, representation and power are real, and history gives reason for vigilance.

But vigilance is not the same as projection.
When symbolic overreach replaces critical thinking, the result is not justice — it is distortion.

When Equality Turns Into Vilification

Equality does not work through inversion. Replacing one moral hierarchy with another does not correct injustice — it merely redirects it.

A society that defines progress by identifying new groups to blame has not overcome prejudice. It has simply rebranded it.

If we want a genuinely inclusive world, all people must be included — including white people. Ironically, white as a colour already does this. It reflects every hue. It dominates none.

What White Has Symbolised for Millennia

Across Western culture, white has long stood for:

• Peace — the white flag raised to stop a battle
• Purity and hope
• Love, embodied in wedding garments across cultures and centuries

These are not sinister symbols. They are deeply human ones.
And perhaps more than ever, they are precisely the values we are lacking today: peace, unity and reconciliation.

Final Thought

Ideological warfare that sows division and moral absolutism on all sides can only ever harvest more division.

If even a blank page is now treated as an act of aggression, creativity itself has been declared suspect.

Or, to borrow from Freud — with perfect relevance here:

Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar.
And sometimes, white is simply white.

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feature image courtesy @Zalando