What The #FFFFFF?! Pantone’s 2026 ‘Color Of The Year’ Is ‘Cloud Dancer’ And Folks Are NOT Having It
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Despite the fact that the word “woke” has been caustically commodified by bad-faith caucasians, the word, in its truest nature, still means “don’t let these white folks trick you.” The culture wars are raging in the streets, tweets, sheets, and everywhere that God has seats, so, we have to be vigilant about the messages that we are getting in media lest we be ignorant to those who would play in our faces.
We’ve already seen what Sydney Sweeney’s “good genes” have done to the online discourse, and today we have yet another example of whiteness being pushed as an agenda that we should subscribe to. No, not the white that Clipse and Jeezy have made famous, we mean the corporatized white that has been trademarked for mass consumption.
According to TODAY, Pantone, the proprietary color-naming system, has declared that “Cloud Dancer” is officially the 2026 Color Of The Year, whatever the f**k that means. The company describes the color as a “billowy” white, an adjective that invokes the idea of elegance, class, and purity. Herein lies the rub, as famous white man William Shakespeare once scribed in Hamlet. It’s 2026, and whiteness (or orangeness, as it were) has become one of the most malignant ills in. Be clear, whiteness isn’t as much about specific people as it is an idea of who gets to benefit most from society’s gains. In today’s political and social climate, Black folks are not trying to hear it, and the reactions from social media are not holding back.
The comments on Pantone’s Instagram post announcing their unseasonal award did not bite their tongue.
“Your choice is about as inspired as mayonnaise,” one person wrote next to Pantone’s announcement about Cloud Dancer on Instagram.
“Pantonedeaf,” another added, while one person commented, “It seems as if this selection, and the content created around it, was conceived in a vacuum completely removed from our collective social and political present. I’d hope a brand that has this much cultural impact wouldn’t operate with such a glaring blind spot.”
The discourse has carried over to TikTok where even non-melanated folks are calling out the color choice.
Mind you, Pantone’s President is Sky Kelly, a Black woman, who explained that the discouse was to be expected.
“At Pantone, we don’t dictate that conversation, we facilitate it,” said Kelly.
Pantone also released a statement on the controversy to TODAY, stating;
“Cloud Dancer visually represents a space to create, like a blank page ready for you to turn your inspiration into reality,” the spokesperson said, in part. “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.”
Explaining that the name plays a major role to “conjure up a feeling,” the spokesperson said that Cloud Dancer “reflects a universally shared experience: wherever we are in the world, we all look up to the sky.”
What do you think about Pantone’s choice of color for 2026?
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