Should we start to phase out the term "color change" for card transformations?

Jan 2, 2016
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I was recently made aware that using the phrase "color change" could be misconstrued as racially insensitive.

I personally have thought that there are a lot of outdated aspects of the magic community that should be changed to be more in line with modern ideals and values. Is this one of them?

Should we start to phase out the term "color change" in favor of something more up to date? What term could we use instead? I was thinking "transformation" would be good but I'd love to hear other suggestions.
 

RealityOne

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Nov 1, 2009
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I was recently made aware that using the phrase "color change" could be misconstrued as racially insensitive.

I'm all for eliminating language that IS racially insensitive because of the etymology (history) of the word. However, this isn't an example of that type of language. Changing a red card to a black card or a red backed deck to a blue backed deck has nothing to do with race. The term is descriptive.

Such changes in language could go on ad infinitum and apply to every word that in any way references color - whitewash, blacksmith (which is based not on the color of the smith's face but the black color of iron) or anything that uses the color black such as the pips on cards (clubs and spades), the color of chess pieces or even checkers - none of which have an etymology based in race.

The problem is that at the end of the day, those changes accomplish nothing and could even be counterproductive. That is, eliminating every word that could potentially be misconstrued as offensive from the magic lexicon would not result in any appreciable change in the degree of racism or the level of racial barriers within magic (and definitely not in the rest of the world). However, it may make people feel better but that is in itself a problem. If people feel better about eliminating the racism in magic language, they will not be motivated to discuss any real issues or make any real changes. That is, the symbolic change will satisfy people's desire for change without effecting real change. As I'm often one to recommend old books, a great political theory book is The Symbolic Uses of Politics by Murray Edelman originally published in 1964.

My suggestion is to address barriers into magic by starting youth magic clubs in areas where there are financial barriers to learning magic. Donate your time or money. Work with schools, churches, and community organizations to teach magic. For me, the keys to magic are the keys to success in life - reading, thinking, being brave enough to be in front of a group of people and the resulting self-confidence. I'm all about reflective magic (magic reflecting reality) and I believe that if you can teach someone to do impossible magic, you can teach them that nothing is impossible in life. Rather than changing a word, you might change a life.
 
Jun 18, 2019
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All in favor of changing the Hindu shuffle to "The Morgan's CatFish Shuffle" say "AYE"!
To be honest, the Bhagwad Gita doesn't really say anything about a "Hindu" shuffle, so I think we'll be fine with that too.

As for colour changes, I didn't know they genuinely were racially insensitive. I also think that it is pretty impossible to phase out a term so popular, ESPECIALLY when the alternative is longer and just looks and sounds more complex.

HOWEVER, if we are getting to changing terms, I want us to realise Tommy Wonder's dream first, and change 'misdirection' to 'direction'.
 
Jan 2, 2016
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881
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I'm all for eliminating language that IS racially insensitive because of the etymology (history) of the word. However, this isn't an example of that type of language. Changing a red card to a black card or a red backed deck to a blue backed deck has nothing to do with race. The term is descriptive.

Such changes in language could go on ad infinitum and apply to every word that in any way references color - whitewash, blacksmith (which is based not on the color of the smith's face but the black color of iron) or anything that uses the color black such as the pips on cards (clubs and spades), the color of chess pieces or even checkers - none of which have an etymology based in race.

The problem is that at the end of the day, those changes accomplish nothing and could even be counterproductive. That is, eliminating every word that could potentially be misconstrued as offensive from the magic lexicon would not result in any appreciable change in the degree of racism or the level of racial barriers within magic (and definitely not in the rest of the world). However, it may make people feel better but that is in itself a problem. If people feel better about eliminating the racism in magic language, they will not be motivated to discuss any real issues or make any real changes. That is, the symbolic change will satisfy people's desire for change without effecting real change. As I'm often one to recommend old books, a great political theory book is The Symbolic Uses of Politics by Murray Edelman originally published in 1964.

My suggestion is to address barriers into magic by starting youth magic clubs in areas where there are financial barriers to learning magic. Donate your time or money. Work with schools, churches, and community organizations to teach magic. For me, the keys to magic are the keys to success in life - reading, thinking, being brave enough to be in front of a group of people and the resulting self-confidence. I'm all about reflective magic (magic reflecting reality) and I believe that if you can teach someone to do impossible magic, you can teach them that nothing is impossible in life. Rather than changing a word, you might change a life.
All great points! But if we have any language in our acts that do make people uncomfortable, shouldn't we make efforts to change that or atone for it?
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
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Has anyone actually provided a reasonable claim that "Color change" has any form of racist connotation?

As I recall, and I could be wrong on this one, but the reason it's called a color change is because it used to be that the color of the back of the card would seem to change. Has nothing to do with race.

While I am very careful in my scripting, anyone trying to make the stretch that "color change" could be racist is looking to be offended. I do not go to lengths to appease those people because there is no appeasing them. If you correct one thing, they will simply find something else to be offended about. It's a never ending cycle which is better to simply nip in the bud and not play into it at all.
 

010rusty

Elite Member
Nov 12, 2016
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Given I've never said Color change in a performance, but the closest I've ever had to this problem was: I had a slip of the tongue and referred to a card (without thinking) as "a Black Queen" rather than the queen of spades, it got snickers from people in the audience and someone chuckled and said "uh, might wanna rephrase that", my face did its own change as it turned red, but no one appeared offended by my word gaff.
 
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Nov 13, 2019
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All great points! But if we have any language in our acts that do make people uncomfortable, shouldn't we make efforts to change that or atone for it?
I agree with the main points that most words could be nick picked as sexist, racist, homophobic etc.
But in response to this, where a layman would not know the terminology colour change there is the odd chance someone might take offence, but then, when are you using this terminology in a routine (alike to when magicians say, 'You can see I have no breaks or in jogged cards etc' - and the audience have little clue what they are talking about.) The word is understood in the community so personally I feel it is fine. If the situation comes along where you think it may cause offence, you can use 'card transformation' and I'm sure laymen and magicians will understand what you mean.
(I'm far too tired to be talking on a delicate subject like this right now, but the same argument could be used for a range of things (the saying 'that's the pot calling the kettle black' (might have messed it up) could be also seen as racist but as it is well known by everyone, it is fine to use, and imo someone is much more likely to take offence to that than the phrase colour change)
 

RealityOne

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Nov 1, 2009
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All great points! But if we have any language in our acts that do make people uncomfortable, shouldn't we make efforts to change that or atone for it?

Magic performances should always reflect their audiences sensibilities. You don't do needle swallowing for a children's show. A late night Vegas show can be more risqué than the show for a woman's church retreat. In the past, heightened awareness of sexual abuse of minors has caused many magicians to change how they interact with children in shows. With COVID-19 and the near future, it is inadvisable to do effects where spectators touch the props and especially effects where they put something in their mouths (e.g. French Kiss).

That said, I'm having a hard time coming up with anything in my presentations (or in most standard presentations) that would make people uncomfortable.
 
Jan 2, 2016
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Magic performances should always reflect their audiences sensibilities. You don't do needle swallowing for a children's show. A late night Vegas show can be more risqué than the show for a woman's church retreat. In the past, heightened awareness of sexual abuse of minors has caused many magicians to change how they interact with children in shows. With COVID-19 and the near future, it is inadvisable to do effects where spectators touch the props and especially effects where they put something in their mouths (e.g. French Kiss).

That said, I'm having a hard time coming up with anything in my presentations (or in most standard presentations) that would make people uncomfortable.
That's true
 

ID4

Aug 20, 2010
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I was recently made aware that using the phrase "color change" could be misconstrued as racially insensitive.

I personally have thought that there are a lot of outdated aspects of the magic community that should be changed to be more in line with modern ideals and values. Is this one of them?

Should we start to phase out the term "color change" in favor of something more up to date? What term could we use instead? I was thinking "transformation" would be good but I'd love to hear other suggestions.

This is from Henry Hay's Amateur Magician's Handbook (italics are my own).

Henry Hay said:
Color changes would be better called transformations, the name given them by Erdnase: but for some reason his term has never caught on, and color changes they remain. They have nothing to do with color necessarily, being simply methods of visibly transforming one card into another, usually on the face of the deck.

No, it is not one of them.

One trick supposedly named by Max Malini has been mostly renamed because it contains racial slurs (****k-a-****k). One of the versions is now known as Shadow Coins.
 

RealityOne

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Nov 1, 2009
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A bit of interesting history based on some quick research. The earliest reference to the move that I can find (using conjuringarchive.com) is in Professor's Hoffman's Tricks With Cards in 1889. Hoffman referred to it as "To Change a Card." There are some German publications which in 1895-6 refer to it as "Coloring the Cards." It is August Roterberg in New Era Card tricks that (appears) to first use the term "Color Change" in an English language magic book. Roterberg immigrated from Bamburg, Germany to the United States in the 1883. I would engage in some conjecture that his term was a combination of the German "coloring" and Hoffman's "change."

One trick supposedly named by Max Malini

My understanding is that the name was based on trying to put the sound two coins make when hitting each other into an onomatopoeia (a word that is pronounced like a sound). Based on that, a better re-name might be clink-a-clink.
 

timsilva

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Nov 18, 2007
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I was recently made aware that using the phrase "color change" could be misconstrued as racially insensitive.

I would really like to hear and understand the person who was rubbed the wrong way from the term (although it sounds more like a cautionary thought). I'll admit that my gut reaction is that its hard to take this seriously (as you presented it) since it's clearly just the merging two simple words to describe a type of effect. One of those words is color, which has some serious discrepancies between its connotations and denotations. That I get. Is there some history/context around this type of effect and that name which could shed more light onto the situation? I'd hate for a sincere interpretation to be disregarded.

On an unrelated pedantic note, "color change" never was a great name, since you might change a 3 of hearts into a 10 of hearts, and the color doesn't actually change. I'd assume that magicians didn't go with "transformation" because it doesn't roll off of the tongue as nicely. For that reason alone, I'm happy to call it something else.

I think we'd need a more succinct name than "card transformation" . What about "card change"? One less syllable, one less letter, pedantically accurate, and less open to misinterpretation. :cool:
 
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obrienmagic

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Nov 4, 2014
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At jungle cruise At Disneyland they recently made huge script change for a ton of jokes that may be considered offensive.

one joke removed was as follows: *lions eating a dead zibra* “Moral of the story here is don’t be a zebra.”

Can you find anything offensive about this joke? On the surface it seems super harmless. There had been a few complaints to have it removed because it is a racist term used to describe a mixed race person.

So I suppose my point is Though a term may seem innocent on the surface we can always do our best to try not to be insensitive to others feelings. Personally I call them card changes. Or I call the change by the name of the change. Is it innocent? Sure. Could someone be offended? Possibly. Are we to police every single word in the dictionary that may offend someone? No but at the same time if you feel that it is something you personally don’t want to say because it may be insensitive then I applaud you for removing it from your vocabulary.
 
Jun 18, 2019
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Well, a lot of my friends aren't magicians, and they didn't think that 'colour change' is an offensive term. Of course, I don't see why it has to be said during a performance at all though. As for magicians, they will naturally think of card ''colour changes''.

As @WitchDocIsIn said, I can't help thinking that whoever said that it's racially insensitive was looking to be offended.

However, if a magician is thick enough to give a colour change effect a racially insensitive patter...
 
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