Black and white has the
biggest visual contrasts. A lot of people occupy the colour black with
negativity and white with positivity. We
associate these colours with opposite concepts such as good and evil and day
and night.
Black is a symbol of
mourning and bereavement in Western societies, especially at funerals and
memorial services. In some traditional societies, within for example Greece and
Italy, widows wear black for the rest of their lives. In contrast, across much of
Africa and parts of Asia, white is a color of mourning and is worn during
funerals. In English heraldry, black means darkness, doubt, ignorance, and
uncertainty. The Black Sun is an occult symbol that is said to be related to
Nazism and occultism. In the Maasai tribes of Kenya and Tanzania, the color
black is associated with rain clouds, a symbol of life and prosperity. Native
Americans associated black with the life-giving soil.
The Hindu deity Krishna
means "the black one”. The medieval Christian sect known as the Catharses
viewed black as a color of perfection. The Rastafarian movement sees black as
beautiful. In the Japanese culture, Black is associated with honor, not death
with the white color being associated with death. Black-dog bias is a veterinarian
and animal shelter phenomenon in which black dogs are passed over for adoption
in favor of lighter colored animals. Black cats may be thought of as either
good luck or bad.
White often represents
purity or innocence in Western Civilization, particularly as white clothing or
objects are easy to stain. In most Western countries white is the color worn by
brides at weddings. Angels are typically depicted as clothed in white robes.
Healing or "good" magic is called White magic. In early film Westerns the stereotypically
"good guy" wore a white hat (earning them the name "White
Hats") while the "bad guy" wore black (earning them the name
"Black Hats"). This has given rise to the use of the names black hat
and white hat for people who abuse and counter abuse of computer systems
respectively. In popular culture this idea is sometimes reversed to play on
reversal of stereotypes.
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