There exist a lot of color symbolisms, such as black plague and white knight.
It is understandable why white people might associate all of the positive meanings usually attributed to white values in these symbolisms with their own skin color – but I hope that white people ( including myself ) are smart enough to realize that color metaphors do not translate into race credibilities.
Likewise, it is understandable why black people might develop a negative color complex as a consequence of all of the negative meanings attributed to black values in these symbolisms.
My question: are we able to get past the color metaphors?
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As an example that the many color symbolisms do not translate correctly into race credibility, think about soul … what is soul? Whatever it is, it is positive – white – and it seems to me that black people have a lot more of it than white people, who are generally repressed, which is negative – black.
Thus, according to this loose example, black people are white and white people are black.
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hello,
Thank you for the great quality of your blog, each time i come here, i’m amazed.
black hattitude.
I grew up with watching a Black Cat to not cross my path as bad luck would ensue.
I also am more intimidated by the blackness/darkness of nighttime for being attacked/robbed.
Who doesn’t panic during a blackout (power outage)?
We are programmed to get fear from our role model parents, then our peer group who are also programmed by theirs, teachers as well in schools. Many items are bad for black BUT if you are in the black financially, you are GOOD to GO because being in the Red means overdrawn in your bank accounts, in deep debt, etc. And the best dressed person is a black tie -tuxedo event. We have to be taught BOTH sides of any color, huh? Gwenne says
@Gwenne Lefkowitz
… black tie affair: positive … nice!
The definitions associated with the word black are NOT metaphors. It does not refer to the color of my skin nor the ethnicity of my family. I am tan. My wife is brown. No human on this earth has black skin. Our ancestors did not come from a country called black. Black is the absence of light and color. We are neither without light or color.
I find it offensive to be called the N word – especially by those of my own race. But even this word is historically more accurate than black. Colored is much more accurate than the word black.
We fought and continue to fight and work hard to have equality among races BUT at the same time we chose to define ourselves using a word that couldn’t be any more different. Black and White are as separate as the East is from the West, as different as Up is from Down.
We are ALL colored. Until we come to realize this AND confess this fact with our words, there will continue to be a separation between black and white.
Speaking for myself, I do not respond to people who call me black. On forms I check African-American OR write-in Colored. In 1863 even Frederick Douglas referred to our race as colored in his editorial called Men of Color To Arms.