Dad was 1/2 Mexican Indian and 1/2 Anglo landowner. The Mexican Indian won out cosmetically. Brown he was.
On the Hex color gradient Dad might have been Russet (#7F461B), Tawny (#7E481C), or even Peanut (#795C32). I’d love to say he was Tortilla (#997950) since tortillas were his fav. That pale brown-wannabe shade wouldn’t even make honorary mention.
Although strong as wood in character, he wasn’t Hickory (#351E10) or Walnut (#43270F) or Pecan (#48260D). Not even Cedar (#4B3A26). All pigments a shade too dark.
Same for Gingerbread (#5C2C06) and Caramel (#613613) and Chocolate (#2B1700). He loved his sweets but the Anglo DNA watered down their flesh impact.
Brown is a difficult word to pin down. Especially when used for people. Especially when considering the abundance of people of Indian or African or Middle Eastern origin. Not to mention south of our border.
Brown and black seem weak and too broad of a stroke.
When working with churches in Panama I ran into a number of people with Chinese, Jamaican, and French heritage. A rich gorgeous Brown-Gold. Almost a tawny meets russet meets I’m not sure what. I haven’t found it on the Hex chart.
Colors provide beauty and variety in a broken world. Especially when used for people. The sheer variety of color speaks of a Creator who loves shades and tones and tortillas.
When the choices overwhelm us, we default to broad brushstroke descriptors. Easier to generalize.
When the Creator worked His magic, He defaulted to more nuance than we can imagine. Easier to specialize.
When Dad looked at us boys he never saw brown. We hailed from a Germanic mom and other father who produced more beige and pinkish progeny.
Didn’t really matter to Dad. Never really mattered to us. We were always good with having a brown Dad. He was always good with having peach tortilla boys.