Color metaphors for race
In some societies,
color metaphors are used in
racial classifications. These often originated from differences in
human skin color, particularly in Western societies.
In the West, particularly the
United States, the primary color metaphor for race is the classification of persons of
African ancestry as "
black" and persons of
European ancestry as "
white". In
Australia,
Indigenous Australians are also called "black". The terms
negro,
colored, and
Negroid also served as color metaphors for persons of
African ancestry except in some places, such as
South Africa, where
coloured people were those of mixed racial descent.
Similarly, persons of
East Asian descent were called "
yellow". This term was most common during the late
19th century, but is now considered offensive by many
Asians.
[Totse.com Temple of the Screaming Electron. List of Offensive Words That Should be Avoided. 1991. August 8, 2006. .] The
yellow peril was a perceived threat from East Asian immigration, apparently as a literal translation of the German "gelbe Gefahr".
Native Americans have been called "
red", "
Redskins" (generally considered a
racial slur), and are still called "Red Indians" in the UK.
[ "Redskins" means Indians don't matter. Indian Country Today. 2002. August 8, 2006. http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1011371670][Hatfield, Dolph. Assessing Racial Sensitivities. 1999. 2006, August 8. .] Other racial groups have fallen under similar classifications with brown being a general term for nonwhites. For instance, during the American occupation of the
Philippines,
Governor-General William Howard Taft referred to the native
Filipino people as his "little brown friends".
Hispanics especially
mestizos are commonly called
brown people.
It is also commonplace in the US to refer to men and women with ancestry from the
Indian subcontinent to be referred to as "brown".
In the
United States, color metaphors are so commonplace that many anti-discrimination statutes use the phrase "race, color, or creed". A branch of the civil rights struggle by African-Americans was known as the "
Black Power" movement; by extension, a similar civil rights movement among American Indians was (much less commonly) referred to as "Red Power". The metaphors are used somewhat informally in academic writing as well as reflected, for example, in the title of Gary B. Nash's book
Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early America (1974).
One point of objection to these terms for race is that they can be subconsciously associated with a color's other metaphorical meanings and reinforce positive and negative self-images.
[Moore, Roger B., Racism in the English Language, 1976; Hughes, Langston, "That Word Black", The Return of Simple] The numerous negative uses of
black and favorable uses of
white have led many people to promote alternate terminology for "black" people, for example "
African-American".
Langston Hughes,
Maya Angelou, and
Ralph Ellison identify a number of negative metaphors in Western cultures associated with the color "black"; see
Black - Usage, symbolism, and colloquial expressions.
See also: Food metaphors for raceColor gradations
In some societies people can be sensitive to gradations of skin colour, which may be due to intermarriage or to
albinism and which can affect power and prestige. In 1930s
Harlem Slang such gradations were described by a colorscale of "high yaller, yaller, high brown, vaseline brown, seal brown, low brown, dark brown".
[Zora Neale Hurston's - Glossary of Harlem Slang "Colorscale"] These terms were sometimes referred to in
blues music, both in the words of songs and in the names of performers. In 1920s
Georgia, Willie Perryman followed his older brother Rufus in becoming a blues piano player: both were albino Negroes with pale blotched skin coloring, reddish hair and poor eyesight. Rufus was already well established as "Speckled Red", Willie became "Piano Red".
[The Blues Collection issue 68, Piano Red, Contribution by Tony Russell, 1996] The piano player and guitarist
Tampa Red from the same state developed his career in
Chicago, Illinois, at that time: his name may have come from his light coloring, or possibly reddish hair.
More recently such categorisation has been noted in the
Caribbean. It it reported that shades of skin color play an important role in defining how
Barbadians view one another, and they use terms such as "brown skin, light skin, fair skin, high brown, red, and mulatto".
[Barbados - Post Report - eDiplomat] An assessment of racism in
Trinidad notes people often being described by their skin color, with the gradations being "HIGH RED " part White, part Black but ‘clearer' than Brown-skin: HIGH BROWN " More white than Black, light skinned: DOUGLA "part Indian and part Black: LIGHT SKINNED,or CLEAR SKINNED Some Black, but more White: TRINI WHITE " Perhaps not all White, behaves like others but skin White".
[RACISM IN TRINIDAD (pdf)] In
Jamaica albinism has been stigmatised, but the albino
dancehall singer
Yellowman took his stage name in protest against such prejudice and has helped to end this stereotype.
In
Russia, persons of
Caucasus descent are called
Black. "
White", apart from its racial meaning, is also a term denoting opponents of the
Bolsheviks during the
Russian Civil War (see
White movement for this usage).
Sometimes,
Belarus and
Belarusians have been referred to (in Western languages, not Russian) as "
White Russia" and "
White Russians", which can be misleading; see those articles for discussion in more depth.
The
Sanskrit word for "
caste" is वर्ण () which has several literal meanings including "color".
*
Brahmins (
white-symbolizing
Sattva),
priests,
teachers
*
Kshatriyas (
red-symbolizing
Rajas),
kings,
princes,
warriors
*
Vaishyas (
yellow-symbolizing
Rajas),
merchants/
craftsmen*
Shudras (
blue or
black-symbolizing
Tamas),
workers,
farmers
Huang (
yellow) is a common surname, but does not refer to the East Asian race as was popular in Western languages until recently. However, the
Yellow Emperor was a legendary founder of China. Yellow is also identified with the "center"
cardinal direction, while China is known as
Zhongguo "middle country".
Hua (華), one of the most common
terms for "Chinese", literally means "multicolored" or "splendid". The homophone 花 which means "flowery" is entirely different.
White (白
bai) means "plain" or "free of charge" in many common expressions and was not traditionally used to refer to Europeans or descendants, who were indentified as "people from [across the] ocean" or some variety of "barbarian". Contemporary
Chinese, has, however, adopted Western usage to a large extent.
Black (黑
hei) is typically applied to those of African race today. However, the term "black resident" (黑户) also refers to unregistered rural migrants in cities (as in
black market).
Names of ethnic minorities sometimes contain colors, not to indicate skin color, but simply for identification, possibly based on traditional clothing or geographical direction.
*Red, Black, Blue/Green, White, Flowery (multicolored)
Miao (Hmong)
*the
Bai (literally
White) are a sedentary lowland people of
Yunnan*Black Bone and White Bone
Yi*The
Qing dynasty
Manchu military were divided into
Eight Banners identified by color and with ethnic associations
The word, 인종
een-jong, is used when describing a person's race, which also incorporates his or her skin color.
White 백
baek, used with 인
een to make 백인,
baek-een, literally means white-person in
Korean,
cognate to Chinese
bai ren and Japanese
hakujin. 흑
heug is used to describe persons of African descent, (i.e. 흑인, cognate to Chinese
hei ren and Japanese
kokujin).
The five
cardinal directions were historically identified with colors. This was common to the
Central Asian cultural area and was carried west by the westward migration of the
Turks. These directional color terms were applied both to geographic features and sometimes to populations as well.
*
North:
Black **
Heilongjiang "Black Dragon River" province in
Northeast China, also the
Amur River**
Black Sea: north of
Turkey**
Kara-Khitan Khanate*
South:
Red *
East:
Green or
Blue (' "qīng" corresponds to green or blue)
*
West:
White**
White Sheep Turkmen**Ak Deniz "White Sea" in Turkish indicates the
Sea of Marmara, the
Aegean Sea, or the
Mediterranean Sea*Center:
Yellow**
Huangshan "Yellow Mountain" in central China
**
Golden Horde: "Central Army" of the Mongols
