Black

This article is about the color black; for other uses, see Black (disambiguation).

Black is a color with several subtle differences in meaning.

Contents

1 Color or light

2 Human

3 Usage, symbolism, colloquial expressions

4 Color coordinates

5 See also

Color or light

#000000

Black can be defined as the visual impression experienced in directions from which no visible light reaches the eye. (This makes a contrast with whiteness, the impression of any combination of colors of light that equally stimulates all three types of color-sensitive visual receptors.)

Pigments that absorb light rather than reflect it back to the eye "look black". A black pigment can, however, result from a combination of several pigments that collectively absorb all colors. If appropriate proportions of three primary pigments are mixed, the result reflects so little light as to be called "black".

This provides two superficially opposite but actually complementary descriptions of black. Black is the lack of all colors of light, or an exhausive combination of multiple colors of pigment. See also Primary colors and Primary pigments.

Human

The term black is also used by some for people with dark skin color, usually of sub-Saharan African origin (in fact the color of the skin is not black, but any of a variety of shades of brown).

Some argue that there is a scientific consensus against race as a biological category, that "blackness" is merely a social construct as some people who call themselves "black" are also of European, Native American and/or Asian descent.

In many countries, there is still a strong (though weakening) social stigma against those persons identifying themselves as part of more than one perceived racial category. Hence, it may be truer to say that people who perceive themselves or are perceived by others as a member of a black cultural group are often called "black."

The term "negro" (Spanish for 'black') was widely used until the 1960s, and remains a constituent part of the names of several African Americans organizations. Nowadays, the term is deemed derogatory and inappropriate. The derived term "nigger", once used widely to refer to people of African descent in a derogatory way, is now almost always considered to be extremely offensive. The exception where some African-Americans have sought to reclaim the term from its racist history by transmuting it to the variant "nigga" by using this to identify themselves in a non-derogatory way. Nevertheless, this term is always considered offensive when used by someone who is perceived as not being of African ancestry.

In largely "white" countries, mixed race people of part-African descent are often referred to as being "black". In other places, persons of mixed race and part African descent are not called "black" due to caste systems in their countries of orgin. Some are called "white" because they have an especially light complexion or European-looking features. When such people are perceived of using their complexions to personal advantage or hiding or denying the African part of their heritage, it is often called by the slang term of passing.

Locale or language	Usage
Australia	Australian Aborigines are commonly called black.
Canada	Canadians use the term Black Canadian to refer to people with dark or African skin.
United Kingdom	The term black Briton is sometimes used in the UK, but it is more common to use an adjectival rather than a noun term and write about black British people. Sometimes the description is loosely used to include what is actually a larger grouping, British people of south Asian descent.
United States	In the USA, African Americans are commonly called, and call themselves, black.
French	The French slang term black (pronounced the same as English, except in plural in which form the S is not pronounced) is a pseudo-anglicism, used only as a noun.
Polish	Poles (Polish: Polacy) use the term czarnuch (pl. czarnuchy) to refer to people of Africoid origins in their country. However, more common is the word muzyn (pl. muzyni), which has no negative connotations. Czarnuch is actually degrading.
Romanian	Romanians use the term negrii (blacks) to refer to African or African-American people, either in or outside Romania. Negrii is not used to refer to other dark-skinned people, such as Pacific Islanders or Indians.
Russian	Ironically, Russians today apply the name chornyye (чёрные, Blacks) mostly not to Africans, but to people from Caucasus, which quite naturally belong to the Caucasian race. Africans are usually called negry (не́гры, Negroes).

Usage, symbolism, colloquial expressions

In Western societies black is most often used with a negative connotation, with a few notable exceptions. For instance, a "black day" would be used in these cultures to refer to a sad or tragic day. However, to say one's accounts are "in the black" is used to mean that one is free of debt (a very positive thing in a capitalist society); being "in the red" is to be in debt—because in traditional bookkeeping, negative amounts were printed in red ink (such as losses) and positive amounts (such as profits) were printed in black ink.

In arguments, things can be black or white, or shades of gray, the intensity used as an analogue for things such as truthfulness or right and wrong. (Note that when referring to the intensity of pigment or light, black is always the complete lack of intensity.)

In Western cultures and their colonial offshoots, the color black is often used in painting, film, and literature to evoke a sense of the unknown or of death. In these cultures, the color black is often seen as the color of mourning, though this convention is less strict than in earlier times, when widows and widowers were expected to wear black for a year after the death of their spouses.

However, in Western fashion, black is a color that is noted as being a reliably stylish choice for formal and recreational clothes, especially for social gatherings. The tuxedo is a prime example of this.

However, in other cultures, such as the Maasai tribes of Kenya and Tanzania, the color black is associated with rain clouds and is thus a symbol of life and prosperity.

Black is frequently used figuratively for lack of metaphorical light. A Black Project is a project not readily visible, such as government actions kept secret from the public, (such as Enigma Decryption or narcs,) or organizations that keep a low profile, (such as certain Société Anonyme or most secret societies.) Black propaganda is the use of known falsehoods, partial truths, or masquerades in propaganda to confuse an opponent.

The term "black hole" is applied to collapsed stars because, like a black object, they neither reflect nor emit light. (The term is metaphorical in the extreme, because no other properties of black objects or black voids apply to black holes, which more literally could be described as lacking almost all familiar properties, rather than having the property of blackness in place other colorations.)

The national rugby team of New Zealand is called the All Blacks, in reference to their black outfits.

Soccer referees traditionally wear all-black outfits, although nowadays the rules have changed and referees are seen wearing outfits in different colors.

In auto racing, a black flag signals a certain driver to go into the pits.

A polished black scrying mirror is used to see into the paranormal world without interference or distractions from the surroundings.

Color coordinates

Hex triplet = #000000
RGB    (r, g, b)    =  (0, 0, 0)
CMYK   (c, m, y, k) =  (0, 0, 0, 255) (canonical) 
                    =  (255, 255, 255, 0) (ideal inks, theoretical only)
                    =  (255, 255, 255, 255) (registration black)
HSV    (h, s, v)    =  (0*, 0*, 0)
                            * (or any other value)