‘Maybe DEI Is Really Over’: Leftists Want You To Know Your Walls Are Probably Racist

Get ready for the latest installment of the left’s favorite real-world game show: “Everything Is Racist!”

Now, the perpetually outraged class of “progressive” punditry is taking aim at the color white itself.

More specifically, some folks are mad at Pantone for daring to pick a shade called “cloud dancer” as its color of the year, as the Daily Caller reported:

Media outlets have mostly declined to directly disavow the color white, instead suggesting that Pantone’s choice might be a little bit problematic.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Maybe DEI is really over,” José Criales-Unzueta wrote for Vanity Vair.

“After a year of efforts by the Trump administration and corporations to roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, alongside aggressive immigration crackdowns, it feels bold, and dare I say out of touch, to utter the words ‘white is the color of 2026,’” Criales-Unzueta concluded.

It must be hard being so precious. The world is full of white: paint, printer paper, even people.

White is “a loaded choice given the current political climate,” an article from the CBC reads.

On social media, some are calling the choice “dystopian,” and “pretentious.” Others compared it to Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad scandal in which she made a play on the words jeans and genes and some internet users saw that as having eugenic undertones.

Here’s a selection of even more colorful (no pun intended) commentary from social media:

Pantone’s color of the year being “a neutral white” is far too much irony for me to handle. https://t.co/SogqbCYkPK

— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) December 4, 2025

white being the colour of the year seems fitting as the west descends into fascism and white supremacy is on the rise https://t.co/KlifH9BsdY

— nd (@naanasfilms) December 4, 2025

The Times is raising alarm over the choice of white as Pantone's color of the year: "a conspicuous choice following a year in which D.E.I. programs have been dismantled and the party in power has been debating how friendly to be with a white nationalist." https://t.co/EaYpo5palA

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) December 5, 2025

Of course, many other called out the manufactured controversy for the inane drivel that it is:

I know yall aren’t saying it’s a form of white supremacy that Pantone chose a shade of white as color of the year.. log the fuck off and get a grip

— noelle (@NoellePullin) December 5, 2025

To its credit, ABC News took a more rational approach in its report on the decision:

“At this time of transformation, when we are reimagining our future and our place in the world, PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer is a discrete white hue offering a promise of clarity,” Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, said in a statement included in the press release.

“The cacophony that surrounds us has become overwhelming, making it harder to hear the voices of our inner selves. A conscious statement of simplification, Cloud Dancer enhances our focus, providing release from the distraction of external influences.”

The institute shared that in celebration of the selection, it would be working with artists from design fields in a new initiative as “part of a broader exploration of commissioning art and celebrating creativity.”

It should go without saying that the color white is all around us, and a hue similar to “cloud dancer” is probably on at least some of the walls in your home. The real racism in this story can be found in those who demand that society be ashamed of or hide the color white just so other races don’t have to experience the trauma of seeing it.

This season, hopefully no one discovers this absolute display of holiday bigotry: